Between conflicts, wars and the repercussions of Corona... How has tourism become in the Arab world?

Although the world has bid farewell to the state of panic that prevailed during the year 2020 due to the Corona virus pandemic, the risks still exist, and the precautions impose themselves here and there, and the tourism and travel movement has not yet recovered to the state it was in in 2019, and there are expectations that the state of recovery of the tourism sector on The world level will not be achieved before 2023.

Over the past years, tourism has been able to be of interest in the global economy, because of its links with various activities that lead to job creation and foreign exchange flows, especially for developing countries.

In view of this role, the United Nations celebrates on September 27 of each year the World Tourism Day, and according to what is published on the United Nations website, this year's celebration will be under the slogan "Tourism for Inclusive Growth".

Arab tourism

The United Nations website states that the tourism sector employs one in 10 people on Earth, but due to the Covid-19 epidemic, about 100 to 120 million jobs are at risk.

In the context of the negative repercussions of Covid-19 on developing countries, the unequal distribution of vaccines will lead the tourism sector to bear 60% of global GDP losses.

In a study conducted by the Arab Monetary Fund in October 2020, under the title “The Impact of Tourism on Economic Growth in the Arab Countries,” it was found that the tourism sector contributed to the Arab GDP by 11.4% in 2019, as the tourism sector’s GDP amounted to $313.6 billion. The sector's growth rate in that year was 2.2%, and the number of tourists in the Arab world reached 107 million in that year.

According to the performance of the tourism sector in multiple regions of the world, it was found that the predominant proportion is intra-regional tourism. In Europe, for example, intra-regional tourism represents 88% of tourism performance, while long-distance tourism represents only 12%.

On the contrary, the performance of Arab tourism, where the performance of inter-tourism is only 42% of the tourism performance, and about 58% of distant tourism, and this is naturally due to the difficulty of movement and movement between Arab countries on the one hand, as well as political and security instability on the other hand.

Among the results of the study of the Arab Monetary Fund - with regard to the tourism sector in the Arab world - is that every 1% increase in tourism revenues leads to a 0.36% increase in the economic growth rate, and every 1% increase in tourism spending leads to 0.28% increase in the economic growth rate.

The number of tourists in the Arab world in 2019 reached 107 million (Getty Images)

Corona repercussions

Like many macroeconomic indicators in the Arab region, 3 major countries control about 59% of the GDP of the tourism sector, and these countries are Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Egypt, which makes us see the extent of the negative impact of the Corona pandemic on these countries.

Travel and tourism have stopped for several months in these countries, in addition to stopping one of the most important tourism resources in Saudi Arabia, which is religious tourism for the rites of Hajj and Umrah.

Beach tourism in Egypt largely stopped during the year 2020, and even the first months of 2021, and it represents the peak of European tourism to Egypt, as foreign tourists are keen to spend the New Year holidays on the shores of the Red Sea in Egypt.

And government data in Egypt states that the revenues of the tourism sector during 2020 decreased by 69%, due to the Corona pandemic, as these revenues amounted to 4 billion dollars, compared to 13.03 billion dollars in 2019. As for the first quarter of 2021, Egypt’s tourism revenues decreased by 42% These revenues amounted to 1.3 billion dollars, compared to 2.3 billion dollars for the corresponding period in 2020.

As for Saudi Arabia, its official data shows that the returns on incoming tourism spending in the country declined during 2020, by up to 80.6%, as this spending fell from $103 billion in 2019 to only $5.36 billion in 2020, largely due to the suspension of rituals. Hajj and Umrah beginning of 2020.

In the UAE, which relies heavily on diverse conference and exhibition tourism, tourism spending for expatriates declined in 2020 by 66%, to reach 48.7 billion dirhams ($ 13.3 billion) after it was 143 billion dirhams in 2019.

Hajj and Umrah is one of the most important tourism resources in Saudi Arabia (Reuters)

conflict areas

There is no doubt that tourism has been affected in conflict countries in the Arab region due to armed wars and the repercussions of the Corona pandemic.

Although tourism in Yemen is less competitive than Syria, it also possesses important tourism components that can make it a tourist front if it witnesses political and security stability during the coming period.

There are other Arab countries, such as Tunisia, where tourism is an important economic activity and resource, but it has been affected by political instability as well as the negative repercussions of the Corona virus pandemic.

According to figures published by Reuters, Tunisian tourism revenues fell in 2020 to 2 billion dinars (746 million dollars), after it was in the range of 5.68 billion dinars, and tourism contributes to Tunisia's GDP by 8%.

In Morocco, tourism revenues were significantly affected by the Corona virus pandemic as well. According to published figures, tourism revenues declined in the first half of 2021 to 8.8 billion dirhams ($ 1 billion and $ 35 million), compared to about 18 billion dirhams in the corresponding period in 2021.

Tourism in Tunisia has been affected by the political instability in the country (European)

problems and challenges

The problems of the tourism sector in the Arab region with the coronavirus pandemic may be well-known and acknowledged, as well as the negative impact of armed conflicts, but there are a number of other problems that the tourism sector suffers from in the Arab region, whether at the level of each country or at the level of inter-tourism Arabia.

There is almost neglect of domestic tourism.

Many Arab citizens have not had the economic conditions to visit the tourist attractions in their countries, and the tourism strategy in Arab countries usually neglects the interest in domestic tourism, and focuses on foreign tourism due to the returns it achieves from foreign exchange, although domestic tourism is one of the most important reasons for facing external crises that Arab tourism is exposed.

The tourism sector in the Arab countries also suffers from a shortage of skilled labor and graduates of educational institutions concerned with hotel services and tourist guidance.

Although Arab tourism is represented by the performance of some major countries, the rest of the Arab countries have many tourist attractions, but they need the investments that they produce for the regional and global tourism map.