Tourism arrivals set to double

The Middle East's share of the global tourism pie is expected to grow as tourism arrivals double globally.

GYEONGJU, SOUTH KOREA // Tourism arrivals globally are expected to almost double over the next two decades to 1.8 billion a year, while the Middle East is forecast to take a bigger share of the pie, a new report shows.

Arrivals in the Middle East are predicted to increase to make up 8 per cent of all international travel by 2030, up from 6 per cent last year, according to the UN World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) report released yesterday. Some 149 million arrivals are expected in the region in 2030, up from 60.9 million last year.

"It's investment and it's also that the appetite for travel of the Middle East people themselves has grown more," said John Kester, the programme manager of tourism trends and marketing strategies at the UNWTO. "They are more connected to the rest of the world. There's a strong link with south Asia and the link with Asia overall might have improved.

"There's a link with Africa that has been developed. You also see it reflected in the fast growth of the region's airlines."

Last year international arrivals reached 940 million.Tourism plays an important role in the UAE's economic diversification strategy, with Abu Dhabi hoping to attract 7.9 million hotel guests by 2030, up from 1.81 million last year.

Meanwhile, outbound tourism from the Asia and Pacific region is expected to grow the most, with the numbers of tourist arrivals generated by the region expected to surge from 204 million to 541 million over the next 20 years, the UNWTO report said.

The rise in the number of people travelling from growing economies with huge populations such as India and China is a major factor in this.

"It's a fact that because of the high growth of the economy, even during the economic meltdown, our outbound [growth] has been increasing very fast," said Devesh Chaturvedi, the additional director general of India's ministry of tourism. "The Middle East is a very big market [for India], especially the shopping paradise of the UAE."

But the pace of growth in tourism arrivals globally is currently slowing, as GDP growth slows and emerging economies mature, the UNWTO said.

Arrivals are likely to grow at a rate of 3.3 per cent a year over the next 20 years compared with an average of 3.9 per cent between 1995 and last year, while the growth rate in the Middle East will slow to 4.6 per cent a year from 10.5 per cent, the agency said.