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The Growth Of The Travel and Tourisms Sector

The travel and tourism sector is now the largest and one of the fastest growing industries in the world. According to the World Tourism Organization (WTO), world tourism grew by an estimated 7.4 per cent in 2000 - its highest growth rate in nearly a decade, which almost doubles the increases of 1999.

Nearly 50 million more international trips were made in 2000- bringing the total number of international arrivals to a record 698 million. In 2001 tourism is estimated to have generated an astonishing US$ 4,495 billion. Moreover, within ten years, that amount will be more than doubled, by which time one in every eleven jobs worldwide is travel and tourism related. In 2001 the travel and tourism

economy will account for 10.7% of the world’s GDP and directly and indirectly generate some 207 million jobs across the global economy, i.e. 8.2% of the world’s total employment. Forecasts suggest that world travel and tourism GDP will increase in real terms at 3.3 % per annum in the decade to 2011. In the same period they suggest that employment in travel and tourism is expected to grow at 2.4% per annum, which are some 2 million new jobs per year. This emphasizes the clear global need for highly educated and enthusiastic graduates who will take up leading positions in this diverse industry.

According to WTO´s long-term forecast Tourism: Vision 2020, international tourist arrivals will top one billion by 2010 and reach 1.56 billion by 2020.

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The driving forces of technology, travel, international trade, trans-national corporations, and the media are accelerating the growth of tourism in and throughout the UAE and wider region. These forces are having a particular impact on developing, marketing, and managing Dubai as a tourist destination, presently and into the 21st Century.

The Middle East is now the fastest growing tourism region in the world, with international arrivals up by 17.4 % annually towards the end of the last century. The WTO forecasts that international tourist arrivals to the Middle East will rise to 68.5 million by 2020. This demonstrates an annual growth rate of 7.1 % over the period 1995-2020, which is well above the global growth rate of 4.1%. Dubai shares significantly in this success, with 5.6 million international arrivals and 7.1 million hotel guest nights in 2000, corresponding to annual growth rates of 14.6 and 21.6 % respectively.9 Since the 1990s hotel capacity in Dubai has quadrupled10, to amount to a total number of 265 hotels with 33,365 beds being operational in 2000. In 1999, hotels and restaurants alone generated almost 5% of Dubai’s non-oil GDP (or over 2 billion Dirhams revenue). And these figures

do not even mention the revenues generated by for instance the brand new Dubai International Airport, or the international airlines, travel agents, tour-operators, museums, shopping malls, entertainment centres, amusement and water parks, events and exhibitions organizations, or the many other institutions involved in building the tourism product.

The importance of tourism to the Dubai economy is reflected by the re-launch of the Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM) under the chairmanship of His Highness General Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the visionary statesman who is also patron of the Emirates Academy.