Revolts take their toll on Mideast tourism sector

Cancellations are affecting even countries so far spared from fast-spreading uprisings, notably Jordan, Syria.

Middle East Online

By Jocelyne Zablit - BEIRUT

Jordan hit hard Tourism professionals in the Middle East are bracing for fallout from the revolts shaking the region, with cancellations affecting even countries so far spared from the upheavals, notably Jordan and Syria. "Tourists are being influenced by the media coverage and are putting the whole Middle East in one bag, not differentiating between one country and another," Touhama Naboulsi, an official with Jordan's Tourism Board, said. "Some tourists have cancelled trips to all Arab countries and of course this includes Jordan," he added. Several sources in the hotel sector said cancellations have reached a worrying 50 percent, while one tour operator said that for every 3,000 tourists originally booked to travel to Jordan in the coming months 1,200 are cancelling. Tourism revenue in Jordan was estimated at one billion dollars (700 million euros) in 2010, representing 14 percent of the gross domestic product. The country's biggest tourist attraction is the ancient city of Petra, and visitors to Jordan often opt for a package tour that also includes Egypt, itself hit by a sharp drop in tourism following the uprising in February that toppled long-time president Hosni Mubarak. The popular revolt in Egypt followed a similar uprising in Tunisia that led to the downfall of strongman Zine el Abidine Ben Ali. Libya, meanwhile, lying between the two, is in the throes of a rebellion while Yemen, Bahrain and Oman on the Gulf have also experienced unrest. In France, an official with one of the country's top tourism operators, Voyageurs du Monde, described Jordan as a "catastrophe" with cancellations nearing 50 percent. "People are in fact more worried about what may happen in other countries than those that have already had a revolution," said company chairman Jean-Francois Rial. "They're wondering whether Jordan's King Abdullah is going to be toppled, whether the king of Morocco might have trouble and the same even for China's leader." Syria is also nervously watching developments and has lowered its forecast of tourist arrivals. "We don't expect more than an 11 to 12 percent increase in the number of tourists because of the situation," Tourism Minister Saadallah Agha al-Qalaa recently said, adding that annual growth since 2000 had stood at 15 percent. Ghassan Chahine, owner of Naya Tours in Damascus, said his agency had received 35 to 40 percent cancellations for the peak season that runs from March through May and concerns mainly European tourists. "People tend to think that the revolts taking place extend to the entire region even though we are telling them that nothing is happening in Syria," Chahine said. "Not so long ago, we were begging hotels that were fully booked to find us rooms and now they are calling us looking for customers," Chahine said, adding that the downturn will translate into hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses. But despite all the gloom and doom, tourism professionals point to the industry's capacity to rebound quickly. "People's perceptions change very quickly," said Sean Tipton, of the Association of British Tour Operators. He said Egypt is by far the biggest market in the region for British tourists with one million visiting the country every year. "As soon as we saw the scenes (of unrest) in Cairo and other cities it had a very direct impact," Tipton said. "My experience in the travel industry is that the British tourists tend to be fairly resilient and have fairly short memories," he added. "So it doesn't take long for a country to bounce back in the reservations."

Prince Andrew entertained Ben Ali son-in-law

Duke of York held lunch for Sakher el-Materi at Buckingham Palace three months before Tunisian regime collapsed.

Middle East Online

Prince Andrew LONDON - Prince Andrew played host to the son-in-law of ousted Tunisian president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali at Buckingham Palace, just months before he was toppled, the Guardian newspaper reported on Saturday. The Duke of York, who is Queen Elizabeth II's second son, held a lunch for Sakher el-Materi, the 29-year-old son-in-law of Ben Ali, three months before the regime collapsed, the paper said. Andrew, who is also Britain's special representative for international trade and investment, attended the event with more than a dozen executives from multinational companies. "Whatever has happened since, at the time it was a legitimate public engagement," the Guardian quoted a spokesman for the duke as saying. "He was expected to go to Tunis this year as part of a UK Trade and Investment visit and this was a legitimate occasion at which he could meet British business people investing in Tunisia and the vice-chairman of the British-Tunisian chamber of commerce (Materi)." Ben Ali fled the north African country for Saudi Arabia on January 14 after a month-long popular uprising against his rule, which began in 1987. The Middle East and North Africa area has been rocked by unrest since the revolt in Tunisia sparked similar protests in Egypt which ousted president Hosni Mubarak last month.

Mea culpa Europe prepares policy U-turn

Europe is bidding to open new chapter with Arab street carrying heavy burden from past.

Middle East Online

By Claire Rosemberg - BRUSSELS

It was financial gains before everything else After embracing the east European remnants of the crumbling Soviet empire two decades ago, Europe faces a fresh Herculean task: how to bond with the Arab street after an era of dubious diplomacy. Slammed for propping up despots and turning a blind eye to rights abuses, Europe's leaders this week hold an extraordinary summit amid Libya's turmoil to mull a "top to toe" revamp of Mediterranean policy -- as Britain's deputy premier Nick Clegg put it. "We are witnessing potentially the biggest geopolitical events of the last decade. ... Ordinary people taking to the streets to demand greater freedom," Clegg said in Brussels last week. "They are creating a new world. We need a new response. This is happening in our backyard." Yet events in the Arab world caught the European Union napping, despite billions of aid funnelled into north African states and a slew of trade deals struck during 15 years of a Euro-Mediterranean partnership. As the stunned 27-nation EU watched former allies Hosni Mubarak and Zine el Abidine Ben Ali swept from office by pro-democracy protests in Egypt and Tunisia, critics poked leaders into facing up to an era of failed policy on the bloc's southern flank. "Europe bowed before these dictators, it paid no heed to repression," said Alain Deletroz, an analyst at the International Crisis Group. "Europe is bidding to open a new chapter carrying a heavy burden from the past." Across Europe, contrite capitals are rattled by skeletons in the cupboard. France has fired its foreign minister for fraternising with Ben Ali, and Britain, France and Italy have been chided for fawning to Moamer Kadhafi as he unleashes war against his own people -- using arms sold by Belgium, Germany and others. "First, we must show humility about the past," said Stefan Fuele, the European Commissioner in charge of the bloc's relations with its neighbours. "Too many of us fell prey to the assumption that authoritarian regimes were a guarantee of stability." The awakening has sent the EU into a frenzied quest for a fresh Mediterranean road map. After this week's summit, the bloc plans new guidelines for the southern Mediterranean by mid-March, with a new look at aid scheduled for April. A key future step will be to condition aid and trade on the respect of basic democratic rights and rules. "We will apply stricter conditionality to reward those who live up to democratic values," Jose Manuel Barroso, the European Commission president, pledged last week. But while the usually sluggish EU-27 seem to be moving with rare speed and cohesion to address events across the Mediterranean, there has been little of the giant enthusiasm that 20 years ago greeted eastern Europe's liberation. "The initial response was to mobilise due to the fear of seeing hordes of refugees land at our borders," Deletroz told AFP. "It was pathetic and hasn't gone un-noticed. There was none of the exuberance of the fall of the Berlin wall." In recent days, the EU's executive arm, the European Commission, has acknowledged Europe needs to change tack, albeit slightly, on migration, which given mounting xenophobia "is not an easy issue", Fuele said. The EU must ask "partner countries in north Africa to prevent irregular migration" but Brussels for its part must "develop more ambitious approaches in the field of legal migration," he said. Barroso too last week called for "mobility partnerships" and more visas for students, researchers and entrepreneurs. Italy, which sees itself as being in the frontline for would-be migrants from north Africa, has warned of a potential exodus of "biblical proportions" from Libya's unrest, but at talks this month won no sympathy from northern EU nations already sheltering refugees from the east of Europe. Migration is sure to pop up at this week's summit as heads of state and leaders look at ways of helping the pro-democracy wave while shoring up economies with the help of Europe's banks -- the European Investment Bank and European Bank for Reconstruction and Development set up for eastern Europe. Along with its southern partners, Spain, France, Malta, Greece, Cyprus and Slovenia, Italy hopes to revive a long-stalled Union of Mediterranean Nations. But "first and foremost", said Deletroz, "Europe must pronounce a mea culpa".

'Al-Qaeda' attack raises tensions in Yemen

Republican Guard soldiers ambushed as they deliver food near Marib, a day after Abdullah Saleh refuses to step down.

Middle East Online

Anti-regime protests continue SANAA - Suspected Al-Qaeda gunmen killed four soldiers in Yemen on Sunday, a day after President Ali Abdullah Saleh refused to yield to protesters demanding his immediate resignation. The new violence came as both London and Washington called on their citizens to consider leaving the impoverished Arabian peninsula country and warned against all but essential travel. The elite Republican Guard soldiers were ambushed as they delivered food near Marib about 170 kilometres (110 miles) east of Sanaa, a local official said. "The attack was similar to others by Al-Qaeda," the official added. A military attack helicopter and ground troops pursued the assailants into a nearby valley, a security source said. Yemen is a key US ally in the fight against Al-Qaeda's branch in the Arabian Peninsula, which a State Department official last month described as the "most significant" threat to the US homeland. Sunday's attack was not believed to be connected to the anti-government unrest which has killed at least 19 people in Yemen since February 16, according to an AFP toll. Security forces arrested 16 protesters in the main southern city Aden on Saturday, as thousands continued to demonstrate demanding Saleh's resignation over corruption, poverty and high unemployment in one of the poorest countries in the world. But the veteran leader who has ruled since 1978 dismissed an opposition proposal for a quick transition of power, saying he would serve out his current term which expires in 2013. In a statement carried late Saturday on the state-run Saba news agency, an official close to the president said the opposition's proposal, envisaging Saleh's departure before the end of the year, was "vague and contradictory". "A peaceful transition of power cannot be done with chaos, but by having recourse to the people through elections, so that they can decide who they want to lead without acts of violence and trouble," the statement said. Yemen's opposition and clerics last week offered Saleh a smooth exit from power this year, even as protests calling for his immediate removal spread from the south to the east of the country. The five-point proposal calls for a "peaceful transition of power" from Saleh, insists demonstrations against his regime will go on and demands a probe into a deadly crackdown on the protests. Once Saleh replied, it would ultimately be up to Yemen's people to "decide whether to accept or reject this proposal," said the Common Forum, an alliance of parliamentary opposition groups. Witnesses said police used tear gas and fired warning shots on Saturday to disperse the protesters and that two demonstrators were wounded after being beaten with batons. Meanwhile, thousands of anti-government protesters took to the streets in the city of Ataq, in the eastern province of Shabwa, on the third consecutive day of protests, witnesses said. "People want to topple the regime," demonstrators chanted, echoing a slogan that has gripped many Arab capitals and that has already forced the presidents of Tunisia and Egypt to quit and thrown Libya into civil war. An MP from neighbouring Al-Bayda province announced Friday his resignation from the ruling party of Saleh in protest against the use of force against demonstrators. Ali al-Umrani announced his decision to quit the General People's Congress and join anti-government protests at an anti-Saleh demonstration in the capital, Sanaa. Another member of the GPC, prominent businessman Nabil al-Khameri, also announced his resignation to protest the violence. Eleven MPs who quit the GPC last week have since announced the formation of a new parliamentary bloc, named as the "Free Deputies", headed by Abdo Bisher. The US government warned Americans Sunday against travelling to Yemen and authorized the voluntary departure of family members and non-essential embassy staff. Britain on Saturday advised its nationals against all travel to Yemen.

Libya regime claims counter-offensive

Members of Libyan opposition deny Ras Lanuf or Tobruk have been recaptured by forces loyal to Gathafi.

Middle East Online

TRIPOLI - Forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gathafi have recaptured a string of key towns, state television said in claims quickly denied by rebels as heavy gunfire rocked the capital Tripoli. With battles raging east and west of Tripoli and thousands fleeing the violence, loyalist forces on Sunday were accused of a massacre during an assault on a key city and The Sunday Times said a British special forces unit was being held by rebels in Benghazi. "Libyan armed forces have taken control of the cities of Misrata (Libya's third city) and Ras Lanuf," a key oil town captured by rebels on Friday, the Allibiya channel said. Troops also recaptured Tobruk, the television said, adding that there had been celebrations of the counter-offensive in the loyalist strongholds of Sirte - Gathafi's hometown on the central coast - and Sebha in the south, as well as Tripoli. AFP correspondents and members of the Libyan opposition denied that Ras Lanuf, a key oil pipeline hub, or Tobruk, in the far east of the country on the main artery to Egypt, had been recaptured. "It's not true. The region is under control from Ajdabiya to the Egyptian border," Fateh Faraj, a member of the rebel-appointed council in Tobruk said by phone from the town. He said the situation was calm and that "absolutely nothing" was happening. Al-Jazeera television interviewed an opposition official, Mohammed Ali, in Misrata who said there had been no fighting at all in the city and that it remained fully under rebel control. "Gathafi says they took back Ras Lanuf, but we are still here in Ras Lanuf and not only here, but further (west)," Colonel Bashir al-Moghrabi, one of the rebel leaders in the town, told reporters outside its only hotel. AFP correspondents are among a number of foreign journalists staying in a hotel on the western outskirts of Ras Lanuf and there were no sounds of any fighting around the town during the night, although there was an air strike after dawn on a rebel checkpoint outside the town. "There were no clashes during the night, the town is under our control," another rebel fighter said. The rebels have vowed to march on Sirte, Gathafi's home town about 150km from Bin Jawad, which was the furthest point AFP saw them deployed along the Mediterranean coast on Saturday. Asked when they would move on Sirte, Moghrabi said: "We don't know. All the soldiers are coming from Benghazi. We are more than 8,000 men." An AFP correspondent in Tripoli said sustained automatic gunfire erupted early Sunday in the centre of the capital, an area that has so far been relatively free of violence. It was not immediately clear where the shots were coming from. They were heard at a hotel not far from the capital's Green Square area. State television showed images of crowds of people in Green Square celebrating the success of the counter-offensive and fireworks being fired into the sky at dawn but the AFP correspondent said the relentless gunfire appeared to be heavy fighting under way rather than celebratory. The rebels on Saturday declared themselves Libya's sole representative on the world stage. The national council - the embryonic provisional government - made its proclamation at a meeting in Benghazi, the rebel stronghold in the east of the North African country. "The council declares it is the sole representative all over Libya," former justice minister Mustafa Abdel Jalil said. Libya's neighbours Tunisia, Algeria and Egypt, as well as France and Italy mobilised Saturday to receive and repatriate a tide of migrants fleeing the unrest. The United States donated $US3 million ($A2.96 million) to the effort. An estimated 100,000 migrants have crossed the Tunisian border with Libya since February 20, Tunisian officials said. In comments to British newspaper The Sunday Times, Gathafi repeated that he had no intention of going into exile. "Does anybody leave his own homeland? Why should I leave Libya?" he said, laughing. He also denied that his forces had bombed civilian areas.

China state media slams calls for protests

Police keep watch along the Wanfujing shopping street in Beijing after protesters gathered on February 20, 2011. China's state media stepped up its criticism of recent calls for anti-government rallies Sunday, saying stability was key amid concern unrest sweeping the Middle East could spread to the Asian nation.

AFP - China's state media stepped up its criticism of recent calls for anti-government rallies Sunday, saying stability was key amid concern unrest sweeping the Middle East could spread to the Asian nation.

The reports come a day after a similar comment piece was published for the first time in a state-run newspaper, amid renewed online calls for citizens to gather in dozens of cities to participate in "strolling" demonstrations Sunday.

"Firstly we must recognise that some people with ulterior motives at home and abroad are using various means to incite 'street politics'," a report on the front page of the Beijing Youth Daily said.

"They are using the Internet to create and disseminate false information, incite illegal gatherings in a bid to bring the chaos in the Middle East and North Africa to China, to mess up China."

A report in the Jiefang Daily, the official Communist Party mouthpiece in Shanghai, also carried a similar comment piece, urging people to "maintain social harmony and stability."

"People must... highly cherish and consciously maintain hard-won stability like they take care of their own eyes," it said.

The anonymous calls for the weekend rallies, inspired by popular uprisings in the Arab world, have heightened official concern about unrest in China amid growing resentment at issues such as a yawning wealth gap and corruption.

Reflecting this unease, an official budget report unveiled at the nation's annual parliament session on Saturday revealed plans to allocate 624.4 billion yuan ($95.1 billion) for law and order in 2011.

This represents a 13.8% jump from last year, and compares to a planned hike of 12.7% for national defence spending to 601.1 billion yuan.

On Sunday, campaigners behind the so-called "Jasmine rallies" again called for people to gather in cities across China, despite a heavy security presence at the designated rally sites in Beijing and Shanghai last weekend.

Several foreign journalists who turned up at the site in a Beijing shopping street on February 27 were roughed up, and police have told reporters they could lose their permission to work in China unless they follow the new rules.

Activists also say more than 100 known dissidents and rights advocates have been rounded up since the protest calls.

Saudi Arabia bans all marches as mass protest is planned for Friday

Extra troops are sent to north-east to quash any Shia protest as King Abdullah's regime gets jittery and oil prices soar in response to the region's continued unrest

By David Randall

Sunday, 6 March 2011

AFP/Getty Images

The ruling House of Saud had drafted security forces, possibly numbering up to 10,000

Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil producer and the regional domino whose fall the West fears most, yesterday announced that it would ban all protests and marches. The move – the stick to match the carrot of benefits worth $37bn (£23bn) recently offered citizens in an effort to stave off the unrest that has overtaken nearby states – comes before a "day of rage" threatened for this Friday by opponents of the regime.

The Saudi Interior Ministry said the kingdom has banned all demonstrations because they contradict Islamic laws and social values. The ministry said some people have tried to get around the law to "achieve illegitimate aims" and it warned that security forces were authorised to act against violators. By way of emphasis, a statement broadcast on Saudi television said the authorities would "use all measures" to prevent any attempt to disrupt public order.

Already, as The Independent reported yesterday, the ruling House of Saud had drafted security forces, possibly numbering up to 10,000, into the north-eastern provinces. These areas, home to most of the country's Shia Muslim minority, have been the scenes of small demonstrations in recent weeks by protesters calling for the release of prisoners who they say are being held without trial. Saudi Shias also complain that they find it much harder to get senior government jobs and benefits than other citizens.

Not only are the Shia areas close to Bahrain, scene of some potent unrest in recent weeks, but they are also where most of the Saudi oil fields lie. More than two million Shias are thought to live there, and in recent years they have increasingly practised their own religious rites thanks to the Saudi king's reforms.

But the day of protest called for this Friday was – perhaps still is – likely to attract more than restive Shias in the east. There have been growing murmurs of discontent in recent weeks; protesters have not only been much emboldened by the success of popular uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, but online channels of communication by those contemplating rebellion have been established. Some estimates indicate that as many as 20,000 were planning to protest in Riyadh, as well as in the east, on Friday.

The jitters of the Saudi regime will be at least equalled in many parts of the world where sympathy for democracy movements is tempered by a reliance on petrol, which most people – for all the special pleading of the haulage industry – can just about afford. Saudi Arabia sits on a fifth of the world's oil reserves.

The past week, with conflict disrupting all but a trickle of Libya's oil production, has seen the Brent barrel price climb to $103, with UK pump prices swiftly going up to £1.30 a litre. The rise in the price per barrel was caused not just by the Libyan strife – the country produces only 2 per cent of the planet's oil needs – but also by the prospect of further unrest in the region, although not the threat of full-scale breakdown in Saudi Arabia.

Yesterday, alarmist voices were not slow to exploit fears. Alan Duncan, an international aid minister and a former oil trader, raised the prospect in an interview with The Times of the price of crude rising well beyond 2008's record of $140 a barrel, to $200 or more.

"Do you want to be paying £4 a litre for petrol?" he asked. "I've been saying in government for two months that if this does go wrong, £1.30 at the pump could look like luxury." He outlined a "worst-case scenario" in which serious regional upheaval could propel the price to $250 a barrel, and thence to British drivers paying £2.03 a litre. London is now considering not imposing the planned 1p rise in fuel duty.