Kuwait trails GCC states in Travel, Tourism Competitiveness Index
KUWAIT: Kuwait ranks last amongst Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states and 11th amongst Arab countries in a report made about travel and tourism competitiveness for 2017. The biennial report, issued by the World Economic Forum (WEF) last Thursday, ranks Kuwait at the 125 place amongst 136 countries, and indicates that the Gulf state has not shown any improvement since the last report. The travel and tourism competitiveness report titled ‘Paving the Way for Further Sustainability and Comprehensive Future,’ ranks countries according to 14 separate indexes.
Commenting on the report, Nabila Al-Anjeri, General Manager of Leaders Group Company for Consultancy and Development (UNWTO representative in Kuwait), said that Kuwait’s tourism and travel sector faces various challenges, the most difficult of which is the lack of a government vision to develop the sector and make it a supporter of national economy.
“According to the report, all GCC states and most Arab countries outranked Kuwait which only got 3.3 points,” Anjeri explained, noting that this reflects the problems that the tourism sector in Kuwait faces in light of the absence of a comprehensive and integrated instructional body to set visions, coordinate amongst various relevant bodies as well as accelerate the execution of tourism-related development projects.
According to the report, the tourism and travel industry formed only 2.1 percent of Kuwait’s GDP of over $2.5 billion, at a time when Kuwait received 182,000 tourists and made $499 million from tourism with an average of $2,739 per tourist. The report also showed that the tourism and travel sector provided 54,375 job opportunities. Anjeri added that the gap was widening between Kuwait and other GCC states such as the UAE because it has not utilized its resources, though they are very similar to those in other GCC states.