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Although the world has said goodbye to the state of panic that reigned during the year 2020 due to the Corona virus pandemic, the risks still exist, and precautions are needed here and there, and the movement tourism and travel has yet to gain the upper hand. the state it was in 2019, and it is expected that the state of recovery of the tourism sector globally will not be achieved until 2023.
In recent years, tourism has been able to gain attention in the global economy, due to its links with various activities, which lead to job creation and foreign exchange flows, especially for developing countries. .
Given this role, the United Nations celebrates September 27 of each year as 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 a inclusive growth “.
Arab tourism
The United Nations website says the tourism industry employs one in 10 people on Earth, but due to the Covid-19 epidemic, around 100 to 120 million jobs are at risk. Against the backdrop of the negative repercussions of Covid-19 on developing countries, the uneven distribution of vaccines will lead the tourism sector to bear 60% of the losses in global GDP.
In a study conducted by the Arab Monetary Fund in October 2020, under the title “The Impact of Tourism on Economic Growth in Arab Countries”, it was found that the tourism sector contributed to the Arab GDP of 11.4 % in 2019, as the GDP of the tourism sector was $ 313.6 billion, the growth rate of the sector in that year was 2.2%, and the number of tourists in the Arab world reached 107 million that year.
According to the performance of the tourism sector in several regions of the world, it was found that the predominant proportion is intra-regional tourism. In Europe, for example, intra-regional tourism accounts for 88% of tourism performance, while long-distance travel tourism accounts for only 12%.
On the contrary, the performance of Arab tourism, where the performance of inter-tourism is only 42% of tourism performance, and about 58% of distant tourism, and this is naturally due to the difficulty of circulation and displacement between Arab countries on the one hand, as well as political and security instability on the other.
One of the conclusions of the Arab Monetary Fund study – with regard to the tourism sector in the Arab world – is that every 1% increase in tourism income leads to a 0.36% increase in the growth rate. economic growth and that every 1% increase in tourism spending results in a 0.28% increase in the rate of economic growth.
The number of tourists to the Arab world in 2019 reached 107 million (Getty Images)Crown 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 Emirates and Egypt, which makes us see the magnitude of the negative impact of the Corona pandemic on these countries.
Travel and tourism have been at a standstill 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 has largely come to a halt in the year 2020, and even the first months of 2021, and it represents the peak of European tourism in Egypt as foreign tourists want to spend the New Year holidays. on the shores of the Red Sea in Egypt. .
And Egyptian government data mentions that tourism sector revenues in 2020 decreased by 69%, due to the Corona pandemic, as these revenues amounted to $ 4 billion, compared to $ 13.03 billion in 2019. As for the first quarter of 2021., Egypt’s tourism receipts decreased by 42 %.These receipts amounted to $ 1.3 billion, compared to $ 2.3 billion for the corresponding period in 2020.
As for Saudi Arabia, its official data shows that the return on inbound tourism spending into the country declined in 2020, to 80.6%, with spending falling from $ 103 billion in 2019 to just 5.36 billion. billion dollars in 2020, largely due to the suspension of Hajj and Umrah rituals in early 2020.
In the United Arab Emirates, which is heavily dependent on diversified tourism of conferences and exhibitions, expatriate tourism spending fell in 2020 by 66%, reaching 48.7 billion dirhams (13.3 billion dollars), against 143 billion dirhams in 2019.
Hajj and Umrah are one of Saudi Arabia’s most important tourism resources (Reuters)conflict zones
There is no doubt that tourism has been affected in the conflicted countries of 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 has important tourism components that can make it a tourism front if it experiences political and security stability over 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 being in the order of 5.68 billion dinars, and tourism contributes to the Tunisian GDP. up to 8%.
In Morocco, tourism revenues were also strongly affected by the Corona virus pandemic. According to published figures, tourism revenues fell in the first half of 2021 to 8.8 billion dirhams (1 billion and 35 million dollars). , against around 18 billion dirhams in the corresponding period in 2021.
Tourism in Tunisia has been affected by political instability in the (European) countryproblems and challenges
قد تكون مشكلات قطاع السياحة في المنطقة العربية مع جائحة فيروس كورونا معلومة ومسلم بها, وكذلك التأثير السلبي للنزاعات المسلحة, ولكن هناك مجموعة من المشكلات الأخرى, التي يعاني منها قطاع السياحة في المنطقة العربية, سواء كان ذلك على صعيد كل دولة أو على صعيد السياحة البينية Arabic.
Domestic tourism is almost neglected. Many Arab citizens did not have the economic conditions to visit their country’s tourist attractions, and the tourism strategy in Arab countries generally neglects interest in domestic tourism and focuses on foreign tourism due to the returns that it obtains foreign currency, although domestic tourism is one of the most important reasons for dealing with the external crises to which Arab tourism is exposed.
The tourism sector in Arab countries also suffers from a shortage of skilled labor and graduates from educational institutions concerned with hotel services and tourism orientation.
Although Arab tourism is represented by the performance of some large countries, the rest of the Arab countries have many tourist attractions, but they need the investments they produce for the regional and global tourist map.
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