Regardless of ongoing regional tensions within the area, nearly all of Center East and North African nations continued to submit features final 12 months. Among the many most visited nations, solely Jordan noticed a lower in 2024.
Within the Gulf, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Dubai continued their tourism pushes, whereas in North Africa, Morocco overtook Egypt because the most-visited nation within the area.
Here is a have a look at the 2024 worldwide tourism numbers throughout a number of the Center East’s most visited nations.
Qatar: 25% Improve
Qatar noticed 5 million worldwide vacationers in 2024, a 25% year-on-year enchancment, in accordance with the most recent knowledge from Qatar Tourism.
Nationals from nations within the GCC – Gulf Cooperation Council – made up 41% of tourists, with the remaining 59% from worldwide markets. Key supply markets included Saudi Arabia, India, United Kingdom, Germany, and the U.S.
Saad Bin Ali Al Kharji, chairman of Qatar Tourism mentioned in a press release posted by the federal government: “Our tourism targets are formidable however achievable. Between 2022 and 2030, we goal to just about triple our customer numbers and to at the least double the tourism in-destination spend. We additionally goal to extend complete tourism contribution to GDP to 10-12%.”
Morocco: 20% Improve
Morocco’s tourism trade noticed a document 17.4 million arrivals in 2024, surpassing its 2026 goal two years forward of schedule, in accordance with the Ministry of Tourism. The determine marks a 20% improve from 2023, with almost three million extra guests.
International vacationers accounted for 8.8 million arrivals, up 23% year-over-year, whereas visits from Moroccan expatriates rose 17% to eight.6 million.
Tourism Minister Fatim-Zahra Ammor attributed the expansion to authorities funding and trade collaboration however didn’t specify which initiatives had the best impression.
The 2024 outcomes put Morocco 35% forward of its pre-pandemic efficiency in 2019, reinforcing its place as a key participant in African tourism.
Turkey: 9.8% Improve
The variety of international guests and tourism revenues in Turkey rose to their new all-time highs in 2024, in accordance with official knowledge.
Income from vacationers jumped 8.3% from the earlier 12 months to $61.1 billion, in accordance with knowledge from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat).
Separate knowledge from the Tradition and Tourism Ministry confirmed that the overall variety of guests arriving in 2024 rose by 9.84% from the earlier 12 months to 62.27 million, together with guests of Turkish origin.
Saudi Arabia: 9.4% Improve
Saudi Arabia had 30 million worldwide guests final 12 months, in accordance with its minister of tourism Ahmed Al Khateeb, who revealed the quantity in January throughout a panel dialogue at Davos. This displays a 9.4% progress over 2023.
Al Khateeb mentioned the main focus, for now, is on driving home and regional journey. He mentioned that the nation had a complete of 127 million vacationers final 12 months, that means 97 million had been home.
“We initially give attention to home vacationers, then we give attention to vacationers within the area, that are the Gulf nations, and we guarantee that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia attracts residents of the Gulf nations to it, and to benefit from the Riyadh Season, Jeddah Season, the Pink Sea and Abha in the summertime… and others. Then we attain European nations, neighboring nations, China and India, and these markets are essential,” he mentioned.
2024 noticed the launch of quite a few campaigns designed to attract worldwide vacationers. “The Land is Calling” marketing campaign launched in August focused at the UK, France, Italy, Germany, and the US.
A month later, it launched a marketing campaign focusing on Indian vacationers. A marketing campaign in China was additionally launched.
All these efforts centered on Saudi’s rising leisure tourism choices, although traditionally, nearly all of journey into Saudi is spiritual tourism, in accordance with knowledge from the Ministry of Tourism.
Al Khateeb affirmed to Asharq Al-Awsat that spiritual tourism was nonetheless the most important driver final 12 months.
“Makkah and Madinah nonetheless high the record of probably the most visited locations in Saudi Arabia, and appeal to hundreds of thousands of pilgrims yearly, on account of their spiritual significance.”
Dubai: 9% Improve
Dubai recorded 18.72 million worldwide in a single day guests final 12 months. This marks a 9% improve in comparison with the 17.15 million arrivals in the identical interval in 2023, in accordance with knowledge from the Dubai Division of Financial system and Tourism (DET).
Efficiency on key lodge metrics remained robust in 2024, with common occupancy for the lodge sector rising to 78.2%, up from 77.4% in 2023.
The common every day price (ADR) stood at $146, a marginal improve from $145 in 2023. In the meantime, the income per accessible room (RevPAR) reached $114 in 2024, marking a 2% improve from $112 the earlier 12 months.
Egypt: 5.3% Improve
Egypt attracted a document 15.7 million vacationers in 2024, surpassing the earlier 12 months’s document of 14.9 million – a 5.37% improve, the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities reported.
“What tourism has achieved in Egypt, regardless of the geopolitical state of affairs within the area and the modifications on the planet generally, got here on account of a collective effort that we should always all be pleased with and protect,” Tourism and Antiquities Minister Sherif Fathy instructed a Senate assembly final month.
Tourism revenues for the 12 months totaled $14.1 billion. Egypt’s high 10 markets in 2024 included Germany, Russia, Saudi Arabia, the UK, Poland, Italy, the Czech Republic, the U.S., and France.
Jordan: 3.9% Lower
Jordan, which shares an extended border with Israel, had one of the attention-grabbing journey shifts of final 12 months. With 6.1 million individuals visiting final 12 months, journey numbers dropped 3.9% in Jordan, largely pushed by a pointy lower in worldwide tourism as a result of Gaza disaster, in accordance with the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities in Jordan.
“It’s clear the struggle on Gaza had a detrimental impression on the efficiency of tourism in Jordan, as witnessed by the drops in variety of guests and receipts [spending],” wrote the Ministry of Tourism in its 2024 annual evaluate.
Probably the most vital impression of the struggle on Gaza got here from worldwide tourism. The variety of worldwide guests declined by 600,000, resulting in a drop of $692 million in spending. This sharp decline was partially offset by a rise of 196,000 guests from the GCC, contributing $213 million.
Moreover, spending from Arab guests rose by $44 million, whereas Jordanian expat receipts elevated by $161 million. These fluctuations resulted in a web world decline of 245,000 guests, with a complete income lack of $273 million in comparison with 2023.
On the Skift World Discussion board East 2024 in November, Lina Annab, Jordanian Minister of Tourism and Antiquities, mentioned the sector has seen “drastic drops” with sure markets, however others are holding robust, and even rising.
“Regardless that we have now seen drastic drops in visitation from sure markets, our variety has saved us in a means the place drops in sure markets had been met by [other] markets sustaining or growing,” the minister mentioned on the Skift World Discussion board East 2024 in Dubai. “Jordan’s supply markets are fairly concentrated in Europe, America, and the area. We divide by GCC and Arab nations. GCC and Arab nations we’ve seen a rise [in visitation].”
The tourism minister mentioned {that a} precedence transferring ahead is reassuring Jordan is a secure vacation spot.
“What are we doing to reassure? We’re using typical advertising strategies. We’re saying: “Don’t take our phrase for it, simply go to.” We’ve influencers, celebrities come to Jordan to share their tales. Time and time once more, we discover that Jordan is rather more resilient than we even thought.”
“This reassurance [doesn’t come] simply by saying how secure it’s. The resilience of the Jordanian tourism sector is proven to vacationers who come right here. Jordan is on the bucket record of each particular person I’ve met.”
Jordan’s Ministry of Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities didn’t instantly reply to Skift’s request for remark.
