Arab tourism sector negatively impacted by economic downturn

Dubai's Crown Prince, Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mohammed Al-Maktoum, launched the 23rd annual Arabian Travel Market (ATM) Travel and Tourism Fair on Monday for Middle Eastern airlines, hotels and tour operators.

Despite encouraging tourist data during the first quarter, Helal Saeed Almarri, general director of Dubai Tourism, said the travel industry in the emirate, a major Middle Eastern tourism hotspot, is facing problems.

"Global travel in the first three months of 2016 was impacted by geo-political, social and economic concerns, with most markets declaring flat to negative growth," said Almarri.

Nevertheless, the sheikhdom registered 4.1 million overnight visitors in the first three months of 2016, a 5.1 percent increase year-on-year.

However, the growth is lower than the eight percent increase in 2015 when the emirate registered 14.3 million visitors.

Dubai and other Gulf states, such as Qatar, Oman and Bahrain, have registered a significant decline in Russian tourists due to the recession in Russia as well as the decline in the country's currency, the rubble, according to analysts.

In addition, falling energy prices are a double-edged sword for the Arab tourism industry.

Akbar Al Baker, CEO of Qatar Airways, said an airline depends on both business and leisure traffic, and there is a definite decline in business traffic.

Oil prices dropped by 70 percent since mid-2014 to the current 40 U.S. dollars per barrel (159 liters).

Masood Ahmed, director of International Monetary Fund Middle East and Central Asia, told Xinhua that the six Gulf Arab states of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Oman would achieve a 1.8 percent economic growth in 2016, down from 3.3 percent in 2015.

Other countries like Egypt, once a worldwide tourist magnet, face uphill challenges to reposition themselves on the tourism map.

Egypt welcomed one million tourists in both November and December 2015, a sharp 41 percent drop year-on-year due to several terrorist attacks in 2015 both in Cairo and along the Sinai Peninsula.

Egypt's tourism minister, Yehia Rashed, told media on Sunday that he expects tourism to bounce back with 12 million visitors in 2017, up from 9.5 million in 2013.

In 2010, the year before the popular uprise in Egypt, 14.7 million tourists visited Egypt.

However, as security is significantly better in the Gulf, Dubai's Tourism Director Almarri remains optimistic.

"Dubai's highly agile, fragmented source market approach, our government's strength, public and private sector partnerships, as well as our efficient promotional and marketing outreach, are fundamental in fueling our overall growth," he said.