Middle East leading tourism revival

The Middle East and Asia are leading the recovery in international tourism, data from the UN World Tourism Organisation show.

Tourist arrivals in the Middle East were up 20 per cent in the first half of the year compared with the first six months of last year.

Globally, tourist arrivals were up 7 per cent in the first half to 421 million compared with the same period last year.

But these numbers were still down 2 per cent on the record year of 2008, when there were 428 million arrivals in the same period.

“These results follow one of the toughest years for the tourism sector with international tourist arrivals declining by 4.2 per cent in 2009 to 880 million and international tourism receipts reaching US$852 billion (Dh3.12 trillion), a decrease in real terms of 5.7 per cent,” the UNWTO said.

The organisation highlighted the fact that growth was returning from very depressed levels, with the Middle East last year seeing a decline of 16 per cent in the first half.