Kuwait Travel offices' losses keep rising

KUWAIT CITY: A member of the Board of Directors of the Federation of Tourism and Travel Offices, Abdul Rahman Al-Kharafi, said the crisis of tourism and travel offices has greatly exacerbated and continues to worsen with the passage of time, as office losses have reached more than 100 million dinars since the beginning of the Corona pandemic.

Al-Kharafi told the daily the losses are calculated at 8 million dinars per month.

He added, the closure of about 200 travel and tourism offices led to a decrease in losses in this sector, and that about 90% of office workers were laid off because of the inability to pay their salaries in light of the insufficient operating income, as most offices now employ only one worker to check the accounts and all related matters.

When asked about the means that may restore the travel movement to normal, Al-Kharafi indicated that the only solution to the return of the travel movement is semi-normal state and doing away with home quarantine, similar to what the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has done, which adopted this step, especially during the Umrah season in the last ten days of the blessed Ramadan, as it is illogical for those coming back to Kuwait be quarantined for of up to a week for no apparent reason.

He indicated this step may hinder most citizens from traveling to their favorite destinations and change their viewpoint on travel, demanding also to allow people to enter the country who have valid residency permits and have taken the vaccinations, which will allow the tourism and travel sector to ‘flourish’ and reduce losses