The latest data released by the Statistical Centre for the Cooperation Council for the Arab Countries of the Gulf (GCC-Stat) indicated that the travel and tourism sector’s contribution to the Gulf’s GDP by the end of 2024 reached approximately 11.4 per cent, with a value of $247.1 billion, reported WAM.
The data also demonstrated that the growth rate of the sector’s contribution to the Gulf’s GDP increased by approximately 31.9 per cent compared to the figures recorded in 2019.
The centre revealed that the sector’s contribution to the global GDP in 2024 amounted to 2.2 per cent. It also suggested that the sector’s contribution to the Gulf’s GDP is expected to reach 13.3 per cent in 2034 insomuch as $371.2 billion. The average annual growth rate of the sector’s contribution from 2024 to 2034 is expected to exceed 4.2 percent.
On the other hand, statistics indicated that the average annual growth rate in the number of tourists travelling between GCC countries from 2019 to 2023 reached 41.5 per cent, which accounted for 26.5 percent of the total international tourists arriving in GCC countries in 2023.
