Middle East set for further growth
Iran and Yemen have been singled out as the Middle Eastern countries that will experience the greatest growth in travel and tourism demand in the region this year.
This is according to World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), which released its tourism forecast for the Middle East at Arabian Travel Market, taking place this week in Dubai.
The figures used by WTTC are prepared by Oxford Economic Forecasting and are calculated using a series a travel and tourism indicators (including investment, visitor arrivals, GDP contribution, employment figures), rather than actual visitor arrival numbers.
This explains why countries such as Iran and Yemen, which receive a relatively small proportion of Middle Eastern tourism, are placed high on the table for growth.
In the case of Iran, the government is making substantial investments in improving tourism infrastructure and in the case of Yemen, visitor exports were down significantly in 2004, leaving plenty for room for growth in 2005.
More relevant to the UK travel trade is the overall growth in travel and tourism to the Middle East, which according to WTTC is beginning to recover after a tough few years following the conflict in Iraq and terrorist attacks in New York and Egypt.
Travel and tourism demand to the Middle East grew 9.1% last year and is expected to increase a further 4.8% in 2005.
WTTC president Jean Claude singled out Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Beirut as examples of destinations where government and industry has worked well together to boost visitor numbers and employment in tourism.
Ginny McGrath
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