PR No.: PR18088

‘The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Outbound Travel Market’, a new report prepared by UNWTO and ETC with the support of Value Retail, examines the fast-growing outbound market of the GCC countries – Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates – with an additional focus on the image of Europe as a tourism destination. It finds that per-capita international tourism spending from the GCC was 6.5 times higher than the global average in 2017, with expenditure estimated to be more than USD 60 billion in 2017, up from USD 40 billion in 2010.

“GCC countries constitute a fast-growing market with the potential to make a significant contribution to European tourism, diversifying demand and promoting new tourism segments”, said UNWTO Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili upon launching the report.

“The GCC nations remain a growing source market for European destinations, which should themselves capitalize on the potential of a younger, value-driven, well-informed and technology-savvy GCC traveller”, added ETC President Peter de Wilde.

Amongst its key findings, the report states that outbound travel from GCC countries to European destinations has benefited from the unprecedented growth in air travel during the past decade, with Gulf carriers becoming major players in long-haul aviation. Air connectivity between Europe and the GCC has seen exponential growth, providing easy access to travel between the two regions.

It notes that GCC travellers are mostly young and family-oriented, with large disposable incomes, and looking for high-quality accommodation, food and retail services. They value Europe’s variety of attractions and landscapes, developed infrastructure and common visa and currency systems, which make multi-destination travel easier. Europe is seen as offering diversity in experiences as well as opportunities to shop for luxury and designer fashion. Barriers to booking a trip to Europe include safety and security concerns, the language barrier and the high cost of holidays.

The report concludes with specific recommendations on how to position and market Europe to GCC tourists. It finds that destinations should focus on promoting specific tourism products and develop pan-European themes to attract tourists looking to visit multiple destinations.

The launch of the study will be supported by a webinar providing an overview of prospects in the GCC outbound travel market, insights into the profile and behaviour of GCC travellers, and appropriate targeted marketing strategies and messages for GCC consumers.

Useful links:

'The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Outbound Travel Market' Full Report

Infographics

Webinar

UNWTO Regional Department for the Middle East

UNWTO Market Intelligence and Competitiveness

Contacts:

UNWTO Communications Department

Tel: (+34) 91 567 8100 / Fax: +34 91 567 8218 / comm@unwto.org

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The UNWTO.TedQual Programme is pleased to announce that the following Tourism Education Programme at Yarmouk University has been awarded the UNWTO.TedQual Certification:

• 1st Certification Process:
• BA Tourism Management

List of Institutions with UNWTO.TedQual certified tourism education and training programmes

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The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), the UNWTO.Themis Foundation and the Bahrain Tourism & Exhibition Authority (BTEA) are jointly organizing the UNWTO Training Programme on Tour Guiding in Manama, Bahrain (22 September-28 October 2018). The programme will take place in collaboration with the World Federation of Tourist Guide Associations (WFGTA) and with the participation of Bahraini tour guides.

This programme, aimed at improving the skill sets and techniques of local tour guides in Bahrain, is divided into two courses: a Hands-on Tour Guiding Course (HoT) for 100 participants and a Train the Trainer Course (TtT) for 12 selected participating guides. The latter course will create local capacity to allow for the activity to be replicated in the future. Both courses will get Bahraini guides the opportunity to get acquainted with international tour guiding standards and promote WFTGA’s code of guiding practice.

With their performance significantly influencing tourists’ involvement in host destinations, tour guides are not only key-front players in the industry but also of the Bahraini community. a community that values interaction and storytelling, two main ingredients in the tourists’ Middle Eastern experience.

The UNWTO Training Programme on Tour Guiding takes an innovative and compound approach in improving the skill sets and techniques of local guides in Bahrain: embracing technology; considering changes in tourist behaviour and demand; and using an interactive methodology incorporating group discussions, problem solving, role play, practical guiding, and technical visits to local museums and other tourism sites.

PR No.: PR 18063

Actions Qatar has taken to improve visa facilitation include introducing an online platform for efficient and transparent visa processing and e-visas, as well as a free 96-hour transit visa doubling the time stopover passengers can remain in the country.

As a result of these measures, Qatar’s visa openness ranking has leapt to 8th in the world from 177th back in 2014. Since the introduction of these changes, year-on-year arrivals from India have grown 18%, from China 43% and from Russia a huge 366%. None of these markets now need a visa to visit Qatar.

In 2014, Qatar commissioned a visa facilitation study for the country, which UNWTO prepared based on its global openness data. “Qatar has implemented and overachieved the recommendations of the study, setting an example by spearheading safe and seamless travel, enhancing the visitor experience and better placing itself to improve mobility for its citizens,” said UNWTO Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili.

“Openness and ease of access are crucial elements of the visitor experience. We have committed to making it a seamless experience, even as visitors plan their journey. We will continue to work with our partners on streamlining the immigration process at Qatar’s ports of entry, as well as ensuring that all visitor visas and visa procedures are electronic,” said Hassan Al Ibrahim, Qatar Tourism Authority’s chairman.

UNWTO measures the mobility of citizens based on their ability to travel seamlessly to other countries. While Qatar currently ranks 106th in the world in terms of mobility, 20 of the countries benefiting from the Qatari visa waiver are already reciprocating, enhancing the mobility of Qatar’s citizens.

Facilitating seamless travel is crucial to the continued promotion of tourism as a development vehicle and potential pillar of achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Qatar’s travel facilitation improvements coincide with progress made in visa facilitation worldwide. For example, Belarus recently made visa-free travel available for 30 days to citizens of 74 countries travelling through Minsk airport. UNWTO’s global visa openness index score has increased from 31 in 2014 to 37 in 2018.

Useful links:

Qatar Tourism Authority Website (includes nationalities eligible for Qatar’s visa waiver and other visa policies)

Qatar Electronic Travel Authorisation and Visa Service Website

UNWTO Visa Openness 2018

Contacts:

UNWTO Communications Department

Tel: (+34) 91 567 8100 / Fax: +34 91 567 8218 / comm@unwto.org

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn and Flickr.

Qatar Tourism Authority Press Office

Tel: (+974) 4499 7882 or (+974) 3392 4466 / pressoffice@visitqatar.qa

PR No.: 18038

Around 6 million jobs in the Middle East are related to tourism and the sector is expected to grow strongly in the coming years. Tourism is therefore ideally positioned as a general job provider, but especially as an entry point into the labour market for youth, and a source of economic empowerment of women through employment.

The ‘Human Capital Development in Tourism’ conference underscored how the direct economic impact of the sector goes beyond tourism, since improving job quality and opportunities in the sector also contributes to the general economic foundations and to build up resilience. Numerous politicians, government officials and tourism experts from across the Middle East gathered for the meeting and looked closely at the need for a comprehensive and regular monitoring mechanism of tourism labour market performance in the region.

In closing the conference, UNWTO Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili stressed the enormous opportunities for the creation of decent jobs and enterprises through tourism in the Middle East and North Africa. In line with UNWTO’s new innovation and digital transformation agenda, he said that “tourism human capital development needs to prepare the workforce through education and training and by embracing technology and digital solutions as educational and training tools”.

Efficient partnerships between the public and private sectors are a cornerstone of such an agenda, especially considering that tourism human capital development is crucial for the competitiveness and sustainability of the tourism industry – tourism skills and competitiveness go together.

The Minister of Tourism of Egypt, Dr. Rania el Mashat, highlighted Egypt’s human capital development initiatives such as large-scale workforce development projects, capacity building initiatives, as well as apprenticeship programmes, all involving remote rural communities. “The Ministry is committed to the strengthening of tourism education and training programmes in Egypt in partnership with UNWTO”, she said.

The Ministers agreed to return to Egypt during the second quarter of 2019 for the coming 45th Meeting of the UNWTO Regional Commission for the Middle East.

Additional information

UNWTO Regional Programme for the Middle East

Agenda of the 44th Meeting of the UNWTO Commission for the Middle East

Photos of the event

Contacts:

UNWTO Senior Media Officer Marcelo Risi

Tel: (+34) 91 567 81 60 / mrisi@unwto.org

UNWTO Communications & Publications Programme

Tel: (+34) 91 567 8100 / Fax: +34 91 567 8218 / comm@UNWTO.org

UNWTO.TedQual Seminar in Egypt - May 2018

The UNWTO.TedQual Seminar in Cairo, organized by the World Tourism Organization, its UNWTO.Themis Foundation, and with the support of the Ministry of Tourismof the Arab Republic of Egypt, was inaugurated on 5th May by H.E. Dr. Rania Al-Mashat, Minister of Tourism of Egypt; Omar Valdez, UNWTO.Themis Foundation Executive Director; and Dr. Edith M. Szivas, UNWTO.Themis Foundation International Liaison Officer.

The UNWTO.TedQual Seminar was an opportunity for the leading Tourism Education and Training Institutions in Egypt to discover the UNWTO.TedQual Certification Programme, a UNWTO QUality Assurance System for Tourism Education and Training Programmes, on its benefits and on the steps to take towards applying for it.

Special thanks to contributors

Throughout the organization of this seminar, the UNWTO.Themis Foundation relied heavily on contributions from Egyptian Ministry of Tourism Government officials. Their input was invaluable, and we want to take a moment to thank them and recognize them for all their hard work:

• Dr. Soha Bahgat, Minister Advisor for Training
• Ms. Helen Tantawy, Director of International Organizations Department

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