Hotels and some tourism and travel offices may be facing a looming uphill battle to retrieve money for travelers who booked rooms in number of hotels in banned countries where they planned to stay before traveling to Kuwait, official sources revealed to Al Anba daily.
The Cabinet’s decision yesterday to suspend all commercial flights to and from Kuwait International Airport until January 1, 2021, has caused all sorts of problems between tourism and travel companies and hotels in transit countries, most of whom do not offer refunds during the holiday season and New Year, especially for travelers who booked in advance in those hotels before the decision was issued.
The sources added, in exclusive statements to Al-Anba daily, that there are approximately 5,000 hotel reservations made through tourism and travel offices, whether in the banned countries or in Kuwait, where travelers cannot recover their money, after commercial trips to Kuwait were suspended as a precaution against the new strain of the coronavirus.
According to the sources, more than 3,000 thousand requests were made for refunds within two days, which may herald a crisis in the coming period.
In a related context, sources confirmed that the profits of the travel and tourism offices do not exceed 3% of the total tickets booked during the no-fly period, but the suspension of flights resulted in the cancellation of 25,000 tickets on the IATA system that were reserved, in addition to 15,000 tickets that were booked on airlines through the tourism office for travelling, bringing the total of canceled tickets to about 40,000 tickets. This means that the tourism and travel offices will likely lost profits estimated at KD180,000 dinars due to the recent decision to stop flights.
Kuwait decided to ban travelers arriving from 34 countries as a precaution against the coronavirus, either directly or via transit, unless they have spent at least 14 days in non-restricted countries. Tourism companies began offering travel packages to facilitate the return of expats from countries on the ban list, with prices ranging from KD260 and KD500 dinars per person. This allowed Dubai and other countries to take advantage of the situation by offering travelers “transit residence”, of which thousands of passengers have benefited.
However, troubles struck the returning expats with the suspension of the airport after news of a new coronavirus strain began surfacing. The Minister of Health Sheikh Dr. Basel Al-Sabah stated that Kuwait has taken all necessary measures and proactive steps to confront the coronavirus, stressing that the decision to close the airport was to avoid a potential risk to the country.
He added that there must be a serious consideration, with quick and immediate decisions to confront the mutated strain of the coronavirus, which was discovered in some countries. He called on everyone to understand the decisions issued in the public interest to maintain public health and prevent the new strain of coronavirus from entering the country.
Commercial flights to and from Kuwait International Airport are suspended from December 21, 2020, until January 1.
This comes, in light of the threat of the new strain of the coronavirus, which began to spread in Britain and other countries of Europe.