Citizens and residents of Kuwait have expressed frustration at the long delay in obtaining a Schengen visa to travel to European destinations, and many have made their annoyance clear by deciding to visit other countries and regions rather than Europe.
Some of the people wanting to apply for a Schengen visa decried the delay in even obtaining a date to apply for the visas at various outsourcing agencies designated by the embassies for this purpose. Moreover, the short period of the visas granted by many European embassies discouraged travelers and made them opt for traveling to countries that do not require such onerous visa processes.
Specialists in the travel and tourism market confirm that the majority of visa-issuing offices for European Union countries do not currently have available appointment slots, while there are a few countries that have appointments available in July.
This required potential travelers to apply for a Schengen visa to countries that had the available appointment slot. But this meant they had to incur additional expenses to visit a country that they did not plan to visit in the first place, as Schengen visit visa rules state that visa holders need to enter the country that issued their visas and then travel to their intended destination.
Several travelers also complained that they suffered financial losses because they had already booked hotels and airline tickets to Europe, but they were surprised that there were no dates for submitting visa applications. In light of all these hassles in traveling to a Schengen country, many summer travelers are changing their travel destinations to Turkey, Dubai, Malaysia, Thailand, Egypt, London, India and Azerbaijan.