UAE is continuously driving its efforts to diversify its economy in order to reduce the effects of oil crisis. Fortunately, few emirates (especially Dubai) had already developed several other sectors even before the emergence of 2014 oil crash. One such example is the travel and tourism industry. Apart from building beautiful and unique structures, UAE has also ensured providing best law & order situation and political stability. These are the main factors required by tourists from around the world. These efforts proved fruitful and now the newest report says that the travel and tourism sector of UAE is expected to grow at higher pace as compared to the rate of global tourism rate.
The travel and tourism sector directly contributed AED 68.5 million in 2016 in the UAE’s economy which is more than 5.2% of total GDP. According to chairman World Travel & Tourism Council, the global tourism sector is expected to grow by the rate of 4% annually for the next decade. Comparatively, the growth rate of travel and tourism business is 5% in UAE. Their research prediction shows that the said sector will contribute more than AED 260 billion in the GDP of UAE which is more than 12% of the country’s whole economy. Contrary, the global average is 10%.
The chairman (Gerald Lawless) said that while addressing the 4th Sharjah Hospitality Forum at the Sharjah Chamber of Commerce & Industry. He added that more than AED 600 billion are expected to be invested in the UAE’s travel and tourism industry. This investment will be used in the up-gradation and construction of hotels, airports, ports facilities, rail, roads etc.
In 2016, more than 300,000 people were directly involved in travel and tourism sector in UAE while around same number of people were indirectly related to this sector. It means that around 10% jobs in UAE are (directly and indirectly) related to this continuously expanding travel and tourism sector. According to the latest projection, Dubai is expecting to get 20 million visitors by 2020 while Sharjah is eyeing 10 million tourists by 2021. In the first half of 2017, Sharjah’s hospitality sector increased by 7.8% as compared to the same period last year.
This forecast by one of the world’s most prominent tourism related forum highlights the bright future of the travel and tourism industry in UAE. If you are interested in taking advantage of this bright opportunity by setting up tourism related business in Dubai, Sharjah or any other emirate of UAE, then you can contact Riz & Mona Consultancy for advice and assistance. We have number of satisfied clients that are thriving in hotel, travel and tour industry. We can have a meaningful conversation via WhatsApp # 971-56-9971225.
