UAE: Sharjah

Quality education and health services is important to ensure growth and productivity. With regular activities severely disrupted in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, schools had to shift quickly to online learning and integrate new health protocols when in-person instruction resumed. Quick adoption helped the emirate maintain its position as a regional centre for education....

Sharjah’s beaches, shopping centres, museums and unique cultural offerings make the emirate a popular tourist destination for nationals and foreigners alike. While international travel slowed significantly in 2020 due to border closures and travel restrictions in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, domestic tourism in Sharjah picked up as UAE residents explored destinations...

While Islamic banks emerged relatively unscathed from the 2008 global financial crisis, Covid-19 is having a deeper impact. Compared to conventional financial institutions, Islamic banks are more exposed to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), microfinance and retail lending – particularly in Asia. The industry was on track for strong growth in 2020, but due both to the...

Prior to the outbreak of Covid-19, medical and wellness tourism was a significant growth industry in many emerging economies. The last decade saw a boom in medical tourism: by 2018 the global market was generating $58.6bn annually, and in 2019 it was forecast to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 11.7% to reach more than $142.2bn by 2026. While the pandemic represents a...

Various governments in the region are looking to new, alternative tourism models to drive their pandemic recoveries, with an emphasis on ecological options and “staycations”. Both in order to reboot its tourism industry and as part of its drive to diversify the economy away from hydrocarbons, Saudi Arabia is developing several major ecological tourism projects. In April 2021...