Travel and tourism to add 1m direct jobs by 2026

Manama : Middle East’s travel and tourism sector will employ more than two-and-a-half million people directly in 2016 and will employ an additional one million people by 2026, according to the statistics from World Travel and Tourism Council.

“Travel and tourism generated 2,519,000 jobs directly in 2015 and this is forecast to grow by 2.6 per cent in 2016 to 2,585,000, contributing 3.3pc of total employment,” stated the report.

By 2026, travel and tourism will account for 3,609,000 jobs directly, an increase of 3.4pc annually over the next 10 years.

The direct contribution of Travel and Tourism to Middle East GDP in 2015 was US$72.4bn, contributing 3pc of the GDP. This is forecast to rise by 4.4pc to US$75.5bn in 2016, according to the report.

This contribution is primarily calculated from the economic activity generated by industries such as hotels, travel agents, airlines and other passenger transportation services.

The direct contribution of travel and tourism to GDP is expected to grow by 4.9pc annually to reach US$122.2bn by 2026.

Money spent by foreign visitors to a country (or visitor exports) is a key component of the direct contribution of travel and tourism. In 2015, Middle East generated US$72.5bn in visitor exports, the report says.

In 2016, this is expected to grow by 2.8pc, and the region is expected to attract 65,982,000 international tourist arrivals.

By 2026, international tourist arrivals are forecast to total 114,648,000, generating expenditure of US$123.2bn, an increase of 5.1pc every year.

Travel and tourism is expected to have attracted capital investment of US$41.8bn in 2015. This is expected to rise by 5.1pc in 2016, and rise by 5.4pc annually over the next 10 years to US$74.5bn in 2026.