Current Issues in Tourism

Tourism and the 2026 Middle East Crisis: International and Regional Implications

The crisis in the Middle East marked by the Israeli and United States attacks on Iran, Israel attacks on Lebanon and Palestine, and attacks by Iran and their proxies on Israel and Middle East and Gulf states represents the greatest crisis for international tourism since COVID-19. The direct effects of the war on tourism in the Middle East and Gulf states is clearly substantial however it is also having broader effects throughout the global tourism system because of the significance on Gulf aviation hubs for international tourism as well as restrictions in airspace for Asia-Europe travel and shipping in the Straits of Hormuz. Moreover, Iran has directly threatened to expand its retaliatory attacks to include recreational and tourist sites worldwide (PBS, Iran threatens to target tourism sites worldwide and says it's still building missiles nearly 3 weeks into war, 20 March 2026, https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/iran-threatens-to-target-tourism-sites-worldwide-and-says-its-still-building-missiles-nearly-3-weeks-into-war).

Indirectly, the effects of the Middle East crisis also have enormous broader impacts on the cost of oil and gas, and therefore tourism aviation and transport, as well as on national and regional economies. According to the head of the International Energy Agency, Fatih Birol, the “depth of the problem” facing the globe because of the war on Iran is now “very serious”, more so than the 1973 and 1979 oil crises, and more serious than the gas crisis sparked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “At that time, in each [oil] crisis, the world has lost about 5 million barrels per day, both of them together 10 million barrels per day. And after that we all know that there were major economic problems around the world. And today we lost 11 million barrels – so more than two major oil shocks put together” (The Guardian, Middle East crisis live: Starmer calls emergency meeting on UK economy; IEA open to releasing more oil stocks, 23 March 2026, https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2026/mar/23/middle-east-crisis-live-iea-chief-says-iran-war-energy-crunch-worse-than-1970s-oil-crises-and-ukraine-war-combined#top-of-blog). From a tourism perspective, aviation schedules are already being revised considering potential fuel shortages while the cost of petrol has implications for domestic tourist travel. The cost aviation fuel and travel uncertainty has hit the economics of the airline industry leading to concerns over the collapse of carriers, such as Spirit Airways in the United States. Moreover, in the longer term the crisis has implications for the sustainability of carbon-based transport networks and tourism infrastructure and may lead to further development of renewable energy-based tourism infrastructure or, at least, new energy trajectories given the geopolitical risks attached to carbon dependent tourism. 

Given the significance of the crisis for international and domestic tourism worldwide and the associated economic, policy, destination and environmental effects, Current Issues in Tourism therefore calls for contributions to a special issue on tourism and the Middle East crisis in an international, regional, national, and destination contexts in order to provide the latest research on the crisis’ impacts and government, industry, destination, and consumer responses. Papers are therefore called for but not limited to the following topics.

• The effects of the Middle East crisis on international and domestic tourist attitudes, behaviour, decision-making, and flows
• The impacts of the Middle East crisis on destinations, attractions and businesses and policy and industry responses
• The Middle East crisis and destination image
• Resilience, adaptation, and vulnerability in tourism considering the Middle East crisis
• The geopolitics of tourism and the Middle East crisis
• The Middle East crisis and the aviation sector
• Energy futures for tourism 
• Foreign policy and tourism
• The future of tourism in the Middle East and the Eastern Mediterranean
• Substitute behaviour because of the Middle East crisis and the cost of energy
• Policy learning and the Middle East crisis
• The international and regional architecture of tourism governance and the Middle East crisis