Travel travails over Trump’s ban are steering anxious tourists towards other countries

 Photo: An unidentified Muslim family marches at the Travel Ban protest march outside of Rep. Peter King's office on February 3, 2017 in Massapequa Park. Justin Starr Photography / Shutterstock, Inc.

Is it a ban or is it not? Has it been cancelled? Will it return? Is it anti-Muslim?

US President Donald Trump’s travel ban against the nationals of Iran, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen—all Muslim-majority countries—quickly found itself up in the air. The Muslim travel world has watched these developments with fraught nerves.

Trump’s original Executive Order left Muslims like British athlete and Olympian Sir Mo Farah, who is of Somali origin, feeling “alienated”, and confidence amongst Muslims wanting to travel to the US plummeted in the immediate aftermath.

The ban was then halted by a federal judge in Washington, allowing those banned to enter the US again. This was followed by angry tweets from the President himself, who claimed that the judge was jeopardising national security.

Now a 15-page brief by the US Justice Department has been filed arguing that the ban was in fact a “lawful exercise of the President’s authority”, and a decision on whether to bring the ban back or not will be made early next week.

The chaos has left Muslim travellers across the globe uncertain and confused. One of the reasons is that the ban was introduced hastily and with little warning, leaving even the travel industry unsure of what it meant. Authorities such as the International Air Transport Association were forced to ask the White House to clarify who should or shouldn’t be allowed to board US-bound planes.

Some travellers have decided to just not take the chance. World of Transport Travel, a London-based travel agent, reported losing £20,000 after six doctors cancelled their US travel plans because three of them were worried about the Iranian immigration stamps in their passports.

Meanwhile, UK-based Serendipity Luxury Travel, which specialises in Muslim travel, has decided to completely cancel their holiday packages to the US in the wake of the ban. Instead, the company has decided Canada will be their first venture into North America, with CEO Nabil Shareef declaring that the ban went against their principles. “Our approach to halal travel is all about inclusiveness, and regimes or destinations that deliberately go against the simplest of human rights goes very much against our principles.”

“Will [the ban] come back? Will it not? Our users are increasingly looking at Canada as their first-choice destination for North America,” said Ayub Bulat, General Manager of Halal Guide, one of the world’s most popular halal travel apps.

Uncertainty has prompted other destinations to see the confusion as a real opportunity to lure Muslim travellers to their own shores. “With the world now getting more isolationist, it’s time for ASEAN [Association of South East Asian Networks] to start making it easier for tourists to come,” tweeted Tony Fernandes, CEO of Malaysia-based AirAsia, a few days after the ban was announced.

America has also traditionally been a very popular destination for medical tourism and higher education for many young people in the Muslim world. However, as stories emerged about Muslim students and academics being stranded whilst on holiday and US colleges advising others not to leave, Muslim students are now thinking twice.

"The pool of students in Egypt who consider travelling abroad for study, until Trump took control, had the USA as pretty much their first choice. Now, amongst the young people I deal with, almost all of them are considering Canada or Germany as safer options,” said Amr El Selouky, a 23-year-old educational entrepreneur from Cairo, Egypt, who co-founded CampUS and TEDxGUC.

Meanwhile, reports have emerged across South Asia that countries like Thailand and Malaysia, which have traditionally been popular with Gulf medical tourists, are aiming to capitalise in that area too.

But it has not all been bad for Muslims with regard to the ban. It has led to widespread scenes of support for Muslims across the States, and images of this have now made their way across the globe, prompting some halal travel experts to declare that Muslim travel to the US will return quicker than we think.

“Photos of Muslims praying at airports and Americans rallying behind them have impacted positively. While Trump’s policies are definitely not liked by Muslims, the support received by Muslims in the US, including the collection of $800,000 in one day for the rebuilding of the Texas mosque that was set on fire, are all going to reduce the negative impact of the travel ban.

“So, apart from the direct impact on those affected by the ban, I do not think there will be a major reduction in travel to the US,” said Irfan Ahmed, founder of Irhal, the halal travel app and website.

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