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03 December 2024

Capital investment in tourism to hit Dh55bn

Published
By Shweta Jain

(AFP)   

 

 

The capital investment in the travel and tourism sector in the UAE is expected to touch Dh55.2 billion by 2016, according to World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC).

And among the developing regions, the Middle East recorded the fastest average growth in 2007 tourism arrivals at 12.9 per cent, according to the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO).


“Tourism growth has been particularly rapid in developing countries in 2007. These countries are not only recognising the development potential of travel and tourism, and therefore, investing heavily in new infrastructure and facilities but their citizens are also seeing rapid economic growth boost their incomes beyond the level where international travel becomes both a feasible and desired option,” said Jean-Claude Baumgarten, President of the WTTC.

Baumgarten was talking during a conference marking preparations for the WTTC’s summit, which is due to be held in Dubai in April.

Travel and tourism industry has signalled continued growth rates for 2008 despite it will be moderately impacted by repercussions of the ongoing global credit crunch, according to industry business leaders.

On global scale, meanwhile, international tourism arrivals increased in this year by nearly six per cent per cent in 2007, totalling to nearly 900 million tourists and marking the fourth successive year that arrivals’ growth has exceeded its longstanding trend of four per cent, according to UNWTO estimates.

The research developed by the WTTC and Oxford Economics has indicated tourism spending per capita incomes has more than matched these increases.

International air passenger traffic also rose from year-to-year in November last year rising at a record 9.3 per cent, according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

Total revenues of Dubai hotels and hotel apartments also touched Dh8.7 billion in 2007, supported by a seven per cent increase in guests, according Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing.
 

The numbers

$8.7bn

Total revenues of Dubai hotels and hotel apartments touched this mark in 2007, supported by a seven per cent increase in tourists, according to figures.