Tourism

With Abu Dhabi having invested heavily in building new attractions to draw in visitors, tourism officials are now busy promoting the emirate in a number of other markets, such as China and Saudi Arabia. Their efforts appear to be paying off, with a rise in the number of hotel guests coming from key source markets during the first half of 2012.

The hospitality sector, one of the region’s largest, is continuing to see visitor numbers grow this year, boosted by better transport connectivity with large emerging markets. This development is increasingly being linked with Malaysia’s overarching strategy of raising revenues and value in key economic sectors, a theme that is set to dominate the next few years.

The number of international arrivals to Bahrain surged in mid-August, as visitors headed to the Gulf country to celebrate the post-Ramadan Eid holidays. The tourism sector appears to be more generally looking up after a challenging 2011, with its direct contribution to GDP projected to grow by 3.7% per year until 2022, according to the World Travel & Tourism Council. Recent investor activity is largely in line with these expectations, with a number of new hotels set to open in the coming years.

In a trend that has continued into 2012, Thailand’s remarkably resilient tourism industry showed itself to be largely unaffected by the country’s devastating floods last year, giving a strong performance that produced year-on-year increases in both arrival numbers and revenue.

Con el reciente ingreso de la Amazonía peruana a la lista de las Siete Nuevas Maravillas Naturales además de varias nuevas iniciativas para atraer a turistas internacionales, Perú tiene como objetivo elevar el perfil de un segmento de turismo floreciente. Sin embargo, se necesitará infraestructura adicional para conectar la región a centros urbanos más desarrollados.

Burgeoning cooperation between the national airline and the tourism board – and the latter’s development of a master plan – are raising the prospects of Brunei Darussalam’s tourism sector realising its untapped potential. However, challenges remain, as the industry tackles a human resources shortage and attempts to broaden the Sultanate’s appeal from that of niche destination.