The CEO of the travel company Tui, Sebastian Ebel, made it clear that the tour operators had not pressured the German government to present the Gulf region as a safe travel area before the conflict in Iran. “We would never claim that” he told the news channel Welt. “That is the responsibility of the Foreign Office. We have no influence over it. And if someone says otherwise, they are being hostile”.
Ebel also dismissed any careless handling of the tense security situation in the Gulf. “Official bodies issue travel warnings, and that didn’t happen” he said. “Our intelligence also did not hint that a reaction would be needed. The distance from Tehran to Dubai is about 700‑800 kilometres. The Foreign Office classified the area as safe, and we followed that assessment”.
When foreign minister Johann Wadephul clarified that responsibility for the repatriation of tourists lies with the tour operators and not the government, Ebel viewed that as a given. “It is our duty to bring home the package‑tour customers who booked with Tui. We don’t need any instruction to do that. We do it, within the limits we have, and we’re very well networked with local governments”.
Ebel expressed concern that the conflict could dent bookings for the Gulf region. “Even if the conflict is resolved shortly, which we all hope for, it will still take several months before it normalises. What we see now is that customers rapidly switch to other destinations” he said. “We’ve already seen a pronounced shift to the Caribbean in the last three days”.