The UN World Tourism Organization predicts that the number of visitors to the Middle East will more than double by 2020 because of ongoing investment in the sector. UN WTO regional representative for the Middle East said the growth rate will be more than double the world average. Amr Abdel-Ghafar said the number of tourist arrivals will increase to 136 million by 2020, compared to 54 million last year.
Middle East tourists arriving during the first seven months of the year fell 13 per cent compared to the same period last year. The decline is due to the global economic recession. Last years growth was 18.2 per cent. Mr. Abdel-Ghaffer said “Generally speaking, the GCC countries appear to be showing a fair degree of resilience to the global economic downturn.”
