Major increase in sales of Kuwaiti travel and tourism agencies

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KUWAIT CITY, Jan 31: The sales of travel and tourism agencies in Kuwait increased by about 75 percent during the year 2022 to KD 276.71 million from KD 157.83 million in 2021, reports Al-Rai daily quoting informed sources. They explained that the revenues of the travel and tourism agencies increased during the past year by about 338 percent to KD 276.7 million from KD 63.22 million in 2020 when the COVID-19 crisis hit various countries of the world including Kuwait.

The crisis had caused the shutdown of the airport and quarantine procedures imposed on arriving passengers. It also led to a significant drop in the air traffic despite discounts on flight tickets and hotels in various destinations, which threatened many travel and tourism offices with bankruptcy and failure, and resulted in the dismissal of a large number of their employees.

The trend of the travel agency sales index in Kuwait was upward from January 2021 until the end of December 2022, with the fading of the COVID-19 crisis and the opening of the appetite of citizens and residents to travel after long periods of interruption. Despite this big jump in sales in 2022 and 2021 compared to 2020, it is still about ten percent lower than the 2019 level when it was about KD 308.18 million. The office revenues were at their peak at that time with a great demand for travel before the COVID-19 crisis caused a shock to the entire travel and tourism sector.

These numbers are clear evidence of the market’s recovery and that it is regaining its momentum, with the great desire of Kuwaitis and residents to travel. It is expected that the sales numbers in 2023 will exceed what they were before COVID-19 crisis in 2019.

The sources revealed that the number of travel agencies in Kuwait is 430, and the monthly losses of these offices during COVID-19 crisis were approximately KD 34 million. They indicated that the demand for travel would increase next month, coinciding with the national holidays that will fall on February 25, 26 and 27, adding that the momentum will be on nearby destinations due to the short duration of the vacation, such as Turkey, Dubai and Cairo.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had earlier announced that the total passenger traffic at Kuwait International Airport from the beginning of 2022 to the end of September 2023 was about 8.2 million, with 4.3 million departures and 3.8 million arrivals. The total flight movement to and from the airport during this period was about 68,621 flights. DGCA also reported that the passenger traffic at the Kuwait International Airport during the New Year’s holidays from December 29 to January 1 was about 138,356 passengers, compared to 96,441 passengers last year.

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