Boosting tourism in the Middle East
The GCC and Egypt understand tourism’s important role in economic diversification, growth, and job creation. In recent years, they have focused on enhancing their tourism infrastructure and offerings, and marketing their destinations far and wide.
Karim Abdallah, partner with Strategy& Middle East said: “This vision should build on the competitive advantages of the country, and highlight target outcomes, including the anticipated number of tourists, the tourism sector’s contribution to GDP, and job creation statistics. Saudi Vision 2030 is an excellent example of this: it clearly delineates plans to offer multiple tourism products and experiences, with a clear goal of increasing the number of domestic and international tourists to 100 million per year by 2030 and boosting tourism’s contribution to GDP from 3 percent in 2018 to 10 percent.”
Marwan Bejjani, partner with Strategy& Middle East added: “Data analytics and data sharing between tourism sector stakeholders is likely to play an increasingly important role in supporting governments in making informed decisions that allow them to tailor offerings. The UAE and Egypt, for example, have diversified offerings that attract visitors from a diverse set of countries.”
Dima Sayess, a partner with Strategy& Middle East and the director of the Ideation Center, said: “Countries in the GCC and Egypt are at different levels of destination readiness in many areas, which can give an indication of where efforts need to be directed. When it comes to tour services, for example, well-established tourism destinations such as Egypt and the UAE have a large number of heritage and cultural offerings. Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, on the other hand, have the opportunity to intensify their offerings in this aspect.”