Tourism

In recent years Oman’s tourism officials have focused their attention on the strong growth potential and revenue stream that comes with turning the country into a leading regional destination for meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE).

Contributing 8.1% to GDP and accounting for 7.1% of total employment in 2016, tourism evidently holds an important place in Morocco’s economy, even though the sector has faced some challenging times. This has largely been due to difficult external environments dampening travel from traditional source markets, though there is evidence that the...

Faced with a downturn in visitors from traditional source markets located in Europe, in 2015 the Moroccan government adopted a series of measures aimed at diversifying its source markets, which included the creation of air connections to new destinations and the rollout of targeted travel promotion initiatives.

Dubai’s rise as a major tourist destination and travel hub over the past two decades has been facilitated by large-scale investment in the hospitality and lodging industry. The emirate has taken a leading role not only in the Middle East – where it has long been a popular tourism market – but, increasingly, further afield, where it is...

In late April 2017 Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM), which oversees tourism development in the emirate, announced the establishment of Dubai College of Tourism (DCT). The new institution signalled a major move on the government’s part to address the shortage of well-trained hospitality staff in the emirate.

With a significant number of new hotels set to open, a raft of private sector-led investments in leisure and business facilities, and the government’s ambitious transport infrastructure development plan well under way, Dubai’s tourism industry is poised for a period of considerable growth in 2018.