Khaberni - The Gulf states have become an attractive destination for regional and international tourism, driven by continuous investments in infrastructure and ongoing development of tourist experiences, alongside facilitating travel procedures. Recent data reflected this growing momentum, showing figures from the Statistical Center for the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Arab States indicating an increase in the Gulf states' share of global tourism revenues to 7.5% by 2024, with recorded revenues of $120.2 billion from international tourism.
According to the “Travel and Tourism in GCC States for 2024” report, released yesterday (Saturday), international tourism revenues in the GCC states grew by 8.9%, compared to 2023, and marked a significant increase of 39.6%, compared to 2019 levels, reflecting a strong recovery surpassing the pre-Covid-19 pandemic phase.
The report highlighted that this performance reflects the continued strong momentum of inbound tourism, supported by an increase in the number of visitors, rising revenues, and growing employment opportunities in the sector. The number of international tourists arriving in the GCC states during 2024 reached about 72.2 million tourists, registering an annual growth of 6.1%, raising the region’s share of global tourism to 5.2%.
The report noted that this growth resulted from several factors, most notably the expansion in air connectivity, simplifying visa procedures, and diversification of tourism products. It also pointed out the growing diversity of tourist source markets, with the Middle East region accounting for 18.8% of the total incoming tourists, followed by Europe at 14.6%, and Asia and the Pacific at 14.5%, indicating an escalating attractiveness of the Gulf states to long-range markets, in addition to interregional tourism.
The rise in tourism demand was reflected in the expansion of the sector's infrastructure, as the total number of hotel facilities in the GCC states reached 11.2 thousand facilities, while the number of employees in the tourism sector in 2024 rose to 1.7 million workers.
