July 4, 2025, 9:54 am | Read time: 2 minutes
Security in the Gulf region has improved, prompting the Foreign Office to ease its travel advisories. However, this does not apply to all countries. Here’s what travelers need to know.
The Foreign Office no longer advises against travel to Dubai. The travel advisories available online for the United Arab Emirates, which includes the metropolis on the Persian Gulf popular with German tourists, have been eased. The same applies to the travel advisories for Oman, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, and Kuwait.
Since June 13, the Foreign Office had advised against all non-essential travel to the Gulf region due to the mutual airstrikes between Israel and Iran. This assessment no longer applies to the six countries mentioned. The corresponding changes date from July 2.
Further Deterioration of the Situation Not Ruled Out
“With the entry into force of the ceasefire between Israel and Iran on June 24, 2025, the military confrontation between the two states ended,” writes the Foreign Office in the travel advisories for the six Gulf states.
However, a further deterioration of the security situation in the region cannot be ruled out. This includes possible security-related incidents and potential disruptions to regional air traffic.
The assessment for Jordan remains unchanged. The Foreign Office continues to advise against non-essential travel to the country. A travel warning is in place for Israel, as well as for Iran.
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What the Assessments Specifically Mean
Travel warnings are issued when it must be assumed that “every traveler faces a concrete danger to life and limb,” as the ministry explains. They carry significantly more weight than a security advisory, such as the one given for Jordan.
- A travel warning is not a travel ban. In practice, however, tour operators often use it as a benchmark for their decisions–for example, whether to offer trips to a country.
- When a travel warning is issued, one can usually cancel previously booked package tours without cancellation fees.
- The travel warning is often considered an indication of the presence of so-called extraordinary circumstances (or force majeure).
Even if the Foreign Office advises against travel to a country but does not explicitly warn against it, tour operators sometimes respond by refraining from offering trips. Those traveling individually, booking flights, hotels, and other arrangements separately, must assess for themselves the level of risk they are willing to accept.
Those traveling to the United Arab Emirates should be aware that it is a non-democratic monarchy and that the legal system is largely based on Sharia law.