| COUNTRY | Great Britain |
| NEWSPAPER | AFP-London |
| DATE | November 19, 2003 |
| AUTHOR | |
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A positive spin on war and terror zones LONDON (Agence France-Presse) Officials from the Palestinian territories, Serbia, Algeria and other places blighted by war or terrorism have turned out in force at the World Travel Market show, eager to attract the attention of tour operators. Saudi Arabia and Israel were also determined to emphasize their good points, such as the relative safety of visitors as well as the fact that fewer tourists mean a more exclusive experience. "Saudi Arabia: the unknown country" was the slogan on brochures for the country, which hopes to attract Western tourists in addition to the 3.5 million Muslim pilgrims who travel to Mecca each year. The country's image has been tainted by the fact that so many of the people linked to the Sept. 11 attacks and other terrorist incidents, including the recent series of bombings in Saudi Arabia itself, have been Saudi citizens. This has made life difficult, admitted Abdullah Aljehani, vice president for marketing at Saudi Arabian Airlines. "But tourists haven't been targeted," he pointed out at the tourism fair, insisting that the kingdom was "one of world's safest places." Serbia and Montenegro, as the biggest section of the former Yugoslavia is now known, also has somewhat of an image problem. "We've had a decade of war and devastation under the rule of Milosevic," the deposed leader, said Milica Cubrilo, head of the country's tourism bureau. "It has all been over for three years, but this image is hard to shake," she lamented. By marketing Belgrade as a weekend getaway, Cubrilo and her colleagues hope to tempt visitors back to a region that, before the wars of the 1990's, was popular with tourists. By comparison with Algeria, which attracted just 20,000 foreign visitors in 2002, Serbia has it easy. More than 150,000 people have died since Algeria plunged into war in 1992, when the army prevented a now-outlawed militant Islamic group from taking power by voiding elections. While conceding tour operators "have a certain reluctance" in sending clients to Algeria, a tourism official, Mahmoud Khorsi, insisted that visitors could now return. "We are here to help people understand that the worst is behind us now," he said. Meanwhile, Michael Kreitem was one of 28 tourism officials trying to stay cheerful at a huge Palestinian stand. In 2000 the region attracted more than a million visitors, mainly drawn to the religious centers of Bethlehem and Jericho, but this has slowed to a trickle of just a few thousand. "Everyone is hoping for peace. A lot of hotels have closed but are ready to open again," Kreitem said. Michelle Cohen from the Israeli tourism office said she was hoping that visitor numbers, at 1.2 million in the first nine months of 2003, would get back to the 3 million annual average of past years. "People understand that the attacks don't target tourists," she said. "Spain also has bombs," she said, referring to the intermittent attacks by the Basque group ETA.
Publisher: Thomas Steinmetz , Editor-in-Chief: Nelson Alcantara, Director of Sales: Michael McCoy |