Gulf Conflict: Impact on Chinese Tourism

Abu Dhabi was one of the world’s fastest-growing destinations for Chinese tourism in 2025. Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash

In recent years, the Middle East has been one of the fastest-growing regions in the world for Chinese outbound tourism, with enormous increases for destinations throughout the Gulf, including Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar. But future outlook has been thrown into question in recent weeks because of conflict in the region.

It is still too early to know even how long this conflict will last, let alone its true impact on global tourism and trade. But this is what we do know so far about Chinese tourism to the region and beyond, based on information from and interviews with major Chinese travel agencies.

Current situation

On 2 March, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued an advisory against travel to Iran and its surrounding countries, including Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, and the UAE (source), and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism issued a circular to all travel agencies. “In accordance with the requirements of the national tourism authority, travel to, sale and promotion of these destinations are prohibited until further notice,” said Dragon Trail’s contact at Qtravel.

Consequently, Chinese travel agencies have suspended selling any group tours to the Gulf region and canceled tours at least through the end of March if not longer – some travel agencies said that trips through May had been canceled, with June still uncertain. As the Ministry of Foreign Affairs works on repatriating Chinese citizens from the region, any plans for travel to the Middle East are currently at a “standstill”, in the words of several travel agency contacts. Inquiries are down by 90% from last month, as travelers adopt a wait-and-see approach.

Chinese online and traditional travel agencies have offered full refunds for travel this month, with the date range updated and extended as the conflict continues. Fliggy, for example, is offering full refunds through mid-March for hotel bookings, group tours, and other travel packages to 14 countries (Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, UAE, Syria, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Türkiye, Bahrain, Iran, Israel, Oman, and Yemen). Other OTAs such as Ctrip, Tongcheng, and Qunar have introduced similar policies.

Outlook and recovery

It’s still too early to have a clear recovery roadmap. “The only way for the market to recover is a complete end to the conflict, followed by a transition period of 1–2 months to allow hesitant tourists to reconfirm their travel plans,” said Dragon Trail’s contact at CYTS – one of China’s largest travel agencies. Other travel agencies recommend suspending any marketing promotions for the time being, and potentially waiting until May (presuming the conflict has ended by then) before beginning actions to rebuild consumer confidence. At this point, our travel trade contacts recommend focusing on small private groups and customized tours, for greater flexibility and smaller scale. Promotion will need to include FAM trips and promotional activities that highlight safety and stability in the destination.

Safety is extremely important to the Chinese travel market, and Dragon Trail’s consumer research as part of our 2025 white paper on Chinese tourism to the Middle East and North Africa revealed that safety concerns were already by far the largest barrier to travel to the Middle East for Chinese consumers, chosen by 71.1% of respondents – far ahead of language barriers (37.6%) and cultural differences (28.7%). The current conflict, which began at the end of the Chinese New Year holiday, has received wide media attention in China, and rebuilding consumer confidence will take time and dedication from travel brands and suppliers.

Impact on Chinese travel to other world regions

Although travel to the GCC region is most impacted, trips to Türkiye and Egypt are also affected by airspace restrictions and consumer sentiment. Beyond this, flights to African destinations – which largely rely on the Middle East as a travel hub – are severely impacted as well. Chinese media outlet Yicai Global also reported a surge in flight prices for travel to Europe during the first week of March, because of the loss of routes through Middle Eastern travel hubs Dubai and Qatar.

Travel agencies interviewed by ChinaTravelNews said that displaced travel is most likely to go to Southeast Asia, though Oceania, Europe, and even North America could absorb some of this market – alongside domestic destinations.