Though several nations have bore the brunt of political turmoil and conflicts, the African region as well as the Middle East is expected to emerge as a major tourism hotspot in the next 13 years.
This region is often referred to by the term MENA.
It is expected that it would be receiving as many as 195 million travellers by the year 2030 and this is a rate that is much higher as compared to the world average, as per the latest figures that have been released by the United Nations World Tourism Organization.
There would also be a requirement for 20 to 50 million new jobs in the region within the following 10 years.
During April, the UNWTO would partner with the Arab Travel Market that is a global event for the travel industry of the Middle East, with an aim to host a forum on tourism in Dubai. Twenty tourism ministers, along with many industry leaders from the region of MENA would discuss about how tourism would be able to fuel economic growth.
There would be specific focus on the GDP growth, infrastructure, job creation and even entrepreneurship.
Taleb Rifai who is the Secretary-General of UNWTO said in a statement that tourism is quite an important sector to support the economic diversification of this part of the world.
The UNWTO has projected that as much as 195 million MENA-bound tourists would be arriving here in the recent years.
Nearly 60 million tourists had visited the Middle East in the year 2010 as per a UNWTO report. But then, those figures had dropped after the Arab Spring protests had enveloped this area in the following year. By the year 2014, this area was showing certain symptoms of recovering after three tough years.
During this time, the number of tourists had risen to about 51 million.
Qatar and Saudi Arabia were among the nations that witnessed the highest rise in international tourists that year.
Simon Press, the senior exhibition director of ATM said in a particular statement that the Middle East had actually experienced a generous dose of transformation ever since the UNWTO Ministers Forum was held at ATM in the year 2015.
