Tourists spent Dh171.38b in the Middle East last year at $900 per capita

Dubai: International tourism receipts reached Dh171.38 billion (Dh46.7 billion) in the Middle East last year, slightly higher than Dh169.55 billion ($46.2 billion) spent in 2011, according to the latest United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) report released last week.

International receipts per arrival averaged at Dh3,300 ($900), the report showed. Which means, an international traveller spends Dh3,300 in airfare and hotel accommodation on an average in the Middle East.

This is higher than the international average receipt per arrival of $860 in Europe and lower than the global average of $1,040.

International tourism receipts hit a new record growing at 4 per cent to an estimated $1.07 trillion worldwide in 2012, in real terms, from $1.04 trillion in 2011. With an additional 39 million international tourists, up from 996 million in 2011, international tourist arrivals surpassed 1 billion to 1.035 billion for the first time in history in 2012.

“It is encouraging to see that the growth in international tourist arrivals was equaled by a comparable increase in spending in spite of continued economic challenges,” said Dr Taleb Rifai, UNWTO Secretary-General, said in a statement.

“Considering that tourism is a key export for many economies around the world, this result is good news as it provides foreign reserves to destinations, and contributes to job creation in tourism as well as in related economic sectors.”

Absolute values

By regions, the Americas (+7 per cent) recorded the largest increase in receipts, followed by Asia and the Pacific (+6 per cent), Africa (+5 per cent) and Europe (2 per cent).

In absolute values, Europe saw $457 billion in tourism earnings equivalent to 43 per cent of the world’s total tourism receipts, the largest share by region. Destinations in Asia and the Pacific ($323 billion) account for 30 per cent of international tourism receipts and the Americas ($215 billion) for 20 per cent. The Middle East’s $46.7 billion represents 4 per cent share of the total tourism receipts while with $34 billion, receipts from African tourism represents 3 per cent share.

“The on-going economic crisis in Europe poses a challenge for the industry, as the European continent represents 55 per cent of the global tourism industry — in terms of tourism arrivals,” Dr Rifai told Gulf News in a recent interview at the Arabian Travel Market. “The industry is also facing a number of challenges on the political, social, economic and environmental front. Despite these challenges, the global tourism industry recorded growth with the number of people crossing borders have crossed the 1 billion mark for the first time in history.”

Except for international tourism receipts (the travel item in the Balance of Payments), tourism also generates export earnings through international passenger transport. The latter amounted to an estimated $219 billion in 2012, bringing total receipts generated by international tourism to $1.3 trillion, or $3.5 billion a day on average.

Ranking

International tourism (travel and passenger transport) accounts for 30 per cent of the world’s exports of services and 6 per cent of overall exports of goods and services. As a worldwide export category, tourism ranks fifth after fuels, chemicals, food and automotive products, while ranking first in many developing countries.

The top 10 ranking of destinations by receipts remained virtually unchanged in 2012, with the United States, Spain, France, China and Italy leading, followed by Macau (China), Germany, United Kingdom, Hong Kong (China) and Australia.

A number of the more mature destinations among the world’s top 10 earners showed remarkable results: the United States (+11 per cent), France (+7 per cent), Germany (+6 per cent), the United Kingdom (+5 per cent) and Hong Kong (China) (+14 per cent). Other advanced economy destinations with growth rates of 10 per cent or above include Sweden (+17 per cent), Japan (+33 per cent), the Republic of Korea (+14 per cent) and Finland (+16 per cent).

Among the emerging economy destinations highest receipts growth was reported by Thailand (+25 per cent), India (+22 per cent), Poland (+13 per cent), South Africa (+18 per cent), Egypt (+14 per cent), Vietnam (+18 per cent) and Ukraine (+13 per cent).