The impact of Trump's travel ban on airlines and Iran

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Nadejda Popova, travel project manager at Euromonitor comments: “Among the airlines that could be heavily affected are carriers based in the Middle East, such as Emirates Airlines, Etihad and Qatar Airways which have been aggressively expanding their route network in the US market for the last couple of years amid heavy lobbying against their expansion from local US players.

Equally, the ambiguity of these very latest developments introduced by President Trump is casting a shadow over the future travel demand to and from the US, especially as many trade representatives are concerned that such changes could bring similar types of retaliation from other countries in addition to any future trade frictions and the adoption of potentially more aggressive protectionist policies. The new executive order could also impact how the US is perceived as a tourism destination and how open to foreign travellers it will be in the future.”

Euromonitor analysts comment specifically on the Impact on Iran’s travel and economy: “Trump’s executive order sends a strong political message but the actual effects of the travel ban to Iranian tourism sector are negligible. Americans are allowed to travel to Iran freely but due to the strained relationship between two countries, there were just over four thousand trips to Iran by US citizens in 2016. The economic effect of these flows is estimated at 6.5 million USD or a mere 0.3% of total Iranian tourism receipts.”

The top 10 inbound and outbound markets for USA (figures are in .000 trips)

Market Sizes | Historical |Number of Trips | ‘000 trips

Market Sizes | Historical |Number of Trips | ‘000 trips