- South Korean tourists stranded in Dubai amid Middle East conflict.
- About 330 tourists remained awaiting repatriation Thursday.
- South Korea warns Middle East projects worth 100 trillion won at risk.
- Government preparing 100 trillion won market stabilisation programme.
The ruling party in South Korea threatens to halt a 100 trillion won worth of the projects in the Middle East whether nuclear plants or smart cities because the government is in the process of preparing a programme of market stabilisation.
South Korean tourists trapped in the Middle East travel crisis were slowly getting back home on Thursday, Yonhap news agency reported, as travel agencies and the South Korean government scurried to book them onto alternative flights since the region where most of the major Gulf airports have been closed or heavily restricted by the Iranian retaliatory attacks since the first strike on February 28.
By Wednesday, more than 400 South Korean tourists will still stay in Dubai, who had reservations with major travel agencies: some 150 Hana Tour, and some 190 and some 70 with Mode Tour and Yellow Balloon Tour, respectively.
Hana Tour established that 40 of their customers had already left Dubai and would be back in South Korea later on Thursday; Mode Tour had re-scheduled a flight to another destination by 39 of their customers who were to arrive at Incheon International Airport later that evening. The companies confirmed that some 330 South Korean tourists remained in Dubai awaiting repatriation.
The situation in Cairo and Amman is good as tourists are returning without any problems, and Dubai is still the center of the crisis
Other Middle Eastern destinations were performing a little better on the part of their tourists. An official of Hana Tour claimed that group customers who were presently in Cairo were going back home with minimal inconvenience.
Yellow Balloon Tour reaffirmed that it was putting together alternative flights to its customers who were stranded both in Cairo and Amman, Jordan, whose flights are planned to take place later this week. Injuries caused to South Korean nationals had not been reported as at Thursday.
The state of affairs in Dubai had been one of the most dire in the area: Iranian strikes on UAE since February 28 included more than 940 drone attacks, 189 ballistic attacks, three cruise missiles, according to the estimates of the UAE authorities, with the majority being intercepted, but the debris falling down causing destruction throughout the state and three proven cases of civilian death in the course of the war.
Exports of 200 Trillion Won Are under threat: South Korea, Ruling Party Threatens Project Stalls and Terminations
Repatriation mission was coupled with major financial disruptions by the ruling party of South Korea that where critical of the wider ramification of the war. Rep.
The situation got even more evident when South Korean policy makers at the head of the policy committee of the National Assembly, Han Jeong-ae, the main policymaker of the Democratic Party, told a Thursday meeting of the DP lawmakers that the South Korean exports to the Middle East in the amount of about 200 trillion won (US$136.7 billion) are now under direct threat due to the expanded US-Israeli campaign against Iran.
She said that it is impossible to disregard the notion that the number of projects in the Middle East with approximately 100 trillion worth, such as smart cities, nuclear power plants and artificial intelligence data centres, might be postponed or even abandoned.
Who Knows 100 Trillion-Won Stabilisation Package and Korean Air Suspensions Seoul Monitors the Gulf Airspace
With the situation deteriorating in terms of geopolitical risks, Han added that the government was drafting a market stabilisation programme worth 100 trillion-won to ensure the situation improved.
The exposure of South Korea to the Middle East is minimal: the region is a strategic market to the Korean construction conglomerates, defence exporters and energy firms, all of which have a slate of promising projects throughout the Gulf states.
Says Seoul Economic Daily, both Korean Air and Korean expatriates in Doha, Qatar have been reporting hearing the explosions and seeing smoke trail of missile interception during the city centre over the past few days. The officials of South Korea reported that the Foreign Ministry was working hand in hand with the travel agencies to expedite the repatriation of the remaining tourists in Dubai as regional airspace slowly opened.
