An Industry In Transit?

The GCC’s travel and tourism industry is continually in flux, and set for some big changes in the coming months. We find out how industry players are faring in the current climate, and how confident they feel as Saudi Arabia and the UAE in particular look to boost the region’s travel market

- Neil King

WHEN SAUDI ARABIA announced plans to carve a reputation as a tourism hotspot earlier this year, the shape of the GCC’s travel and tourism industry took on a new and intriguing design, adding a fresh and largely unexpected element to an already ambitious blueprint.

Under the wide-reaching Vision 2030 – designed to position the kingdom’s economy away from a dependency on oil – Saudi Arabia aims to develop a tourism market to rival any other across the world; bold plans given its history as a largely closed destination for visitors, complete with visa restrictions and a distinct lack of obvious tourist attractions.

But since the launch of a new 30-day general tourist visa (also available to single women), a pledge of $49bn for tourism projects per year until 2020, and the unveiling of plans to both cultivate existing potential tourist sites and build new ones, prospects have increased dramatically. All added to the growth of the country's religious tourism through Hajj and Umrah.

In launching these plans, Saudi Arabia joins other GCC members in seeking to make the most of the region’s tourism appeal.

Dubai’s long-standing ambitions to attract 20 million visitors by 2020 appears to be firmly on track, while the UAE’s capital continues to boost its attractiveness with the opening of the Louvre Abu Dhabi, among other attractions, and Ras Al Khaimah solidifies its reputation as an outdoor pursuits hub.

The new Muscat International Airport is a signal of Oman’s intentions, with capacity to handle more than 20 million passengers per year, and plans to increase capacity to 48 million passengers in the future.

Without doubt, exciting plans are afoot for the future; but for businesses operating in the present, travel and tourism is already proving a thriving sector, with steady growth in recent months.