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The World Tourism Organization (WTO) expects that the Arab world will witness a 2.6 % growth in tourism sector during this year indicating that the expected growth rate is a significant improvement compared to the decline that occurred last year when only 42% of Arab tourists visited the Arab countries, whereas the ratio of Arab tourists making trips to non-Arab states reached to 58% …
The WTO also expected that the number of Arab tourists would jump to 36 million by 2010 out of the total universally expected number of tourists which could reach up to 1.6 billion, pointing out that it expected a 69 million hike in the number of Arab tourists by the end of the next decade.
The Organization further predicted an increase in the Arab States' share of the total global tourism from 2.2% in 1995 to 4.4% by 2020, stating that the average annual growth rate achieved by Arab tourism sector during that period amounted to 6.7%.
According to WTO, Jordan is one of the countries that benefited much from the growing Arab tourism as nearly 4.8 million tourists from the total number of Arab tourists planning to visit Jordan this year. Then, comes Lebanon in second place as a destination desired by two million tourists.
Syria achieved an increase in the number of Gulf tourists by 23% as the number increased in the first quarter this year to 116 thousand compared with 95 thousand in the first quarter of 2008.
The organization stressed that Arab countries are more capable of overcoming the global crisis sweeping tourism sector worldwide than other world countries , elucidating that the number of tourists around the world fell during the past two months by 7.7% compared to the same period last year and much more than the 2.2% reduction predicted by WTO.
The World Tourism Organization referred that the Middle East has achieved a 11% growth rate over the past year whereas the average global growth rate did not exceed 2% during the same period.
According to estimates by the World Travel and Tourism, the Gulf states spend $ 20 billion annually on the holiday season, and Saudi Arabia is ranked first share of $ 8.5 billion, with the UAE coming second in the share of five billion dollars, followed by Kuwait's share of five billion dollars, and Qatar share $ 600 million, Oman $ 400 million, and Bahrain with $ 300 million.
The Council estimates that the tourism sector in the Middle East will provide 10.5 million jobs during the current year by 10.1% of the total labour force.
The organization pointed out that the Middle East has achieved over the past year a growth rate as 11%, while the global average growth rate did not exceed 2% during the same period.
According to estimates by the World Travel and Tourism Council, the Gulf tates spend $ 20 billion annually during the holiday season. Saudi Arabia is ranked first with a $ 8.5 billion share while The United Arab Emirates comes in the second place with five billion dollars, then, comes Kuwait with $ 5 billion, Qatar with $ 600 million, Oman with $ 400 million, and finally Bahrain with $ 300 million.
The Council estimates that tourism sector in the Middle East will provide 10.5 million jobs during the current year, 10.1% of the total labour force.
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