More Leisure! is the universal battle cry of the region’s governmental economic planners. Irrespective of presence or absence of oil revenues or the varying states of their knowledge economies, most countries in Asia Minor and North Africa have plans for making tourism produce more income and more jobs in the coming 10 to 15 years. The ambitions run so high that many countries want to increase the influx of foreign visitors two, four, or even six and tenfold by the century’s third decade.
Countries like Tunisia and Turkey have already succeeded in staking good claims as easy venues for quick-grill-in-the-sun (and a bit of culture garnish) visits by European herd travelers. Backed by ample supplies of shorelines, new and mostly self-contained resort projects, and natural hospitality of their people, at least half the region’s countries appear eager to “emulate” the sunshine tourism model or create niche tourism destinations.
As home of three major religions and numerous confessional subdivisions, the Middle East is also the global hub for religious tourism, not to forget its once again growing functionality as trade and meeting center for three continents and stopover location in long-haul trips. On the downside risks, tourism is fickle and nothing deters wanted peaceful visitors more (but sadly, seems to attract the other kind all the more) than if a country is enmeshed in senseless power struggles and danger of terror attacks.
Last month, Executive devoted extensive coverage to Dubai, without doubt the region’s jewel in the crown. This month, we assess the rest from our pick of the hotspots and HOTSPOTS.
Egypt
With 9.1 million visitors in 2006 and more than a tenth of its workforce relying on tourism, Egypt was and is the top spot in Middle Eastern destinations. How can you beat pyramids for recognition value, the real thing that made even a Napoleon gasp? Tourism developments in Egypt remain vulnerable to terrorism, with murderous attacks in a Sinai resort town in April 2006 and the 2005 bombings in Sharm El Sheikh demonstrating the high level of recurring risk. Sunshine and safety thus have been picked as two themes for Egypt’s most recent tourism promotion campaign, which is a testimony to the fact that even a country with a complete line-up of archeological wonders, cruise-worthy river, dive-enticing coral reefs, picture book beaches, and plenty of resorts has to invest in its tourism marketing. Holidaymaking in Egypt is a growing potential for Arab visitors, partly because of expansive Gulf investments in tourism complexes and summer homes. Egyptian tourism promoters have also toured the Gulf recently. However, the country’s main target markets remain elsewhere and Egypt is the Middle East’s sole country which has an official tourism promotion website for industry members and media that operates in more than a dozen languages from Swedish and Russian to English and German – although not yet in Arabic.
Oman
Oman has treasures of nature supporting its aspiration to expand its tourism industry, which is said to have welcomed around 1.2 million visitors in 2006. Adventure tours and family packages are on the agenda of the sultanate which also counts the myth of Sinbad, model of the adventurous traveler, among its assets.
Flying to Oman with the national carrier means traveling in the shadow of an upsized symbolic dagger on the cabin wall but – given the airline’s chosen seat configuration on its 737s – that air trip to Muscat is actually more a menace for the long-legged than a challenge to the faint-hearted.
Tourism projects include The Wave, a 2.5 million square meter development near Muscat on the pristine shores of the sultanate. Construction at the site started last month. Once completed, the tourism paradise will be able to permanently house 4,000 of the world’s wealthy and harbor 300 of their yachts. Golf will be played on a course designed by Greg Norman and one of the four luxury hotels will be managed by Kempinski. A longer-term plan is to build Blue City, an urban and leisure dream, over the next two decades. Cost of the multi-hotel, multi-golf course entailing project is optimistically projected at $15 billion and the first $925 million note for its finance has been sold.
Iran
For a country whose intriguing historic appeal and marvels such as Isfahan, Shiraz, and Persepolis attracted 1.5 million visitors in 2005, Iran has been given a bleak tourism positioning by its current leadership whose motto appears to be ‘we don’t care who likes us’. Having a disputed civilian nuclear program may not be the worst of tourism PR disasters and denial of historic evils is not unique to Iranian ideologues, even though it did turn off well-heeled segments of US and European visitors who had taken a bit of a liking to Iran during the reign of reformist president Mohammed Khatemi. But forcing Ahmadinejadian hospitality on British sailors and sending off every single of the “guests” in attire fashioned to the taste of the current president has caused not only British interest to dwindle to a hefty nil when it comes to any form of Iran tourism. Topping the instructional news off are reports on the state’s latest fashion of coercing women to comply with restrictive interpretations of proper head scarves (show no hair!). With so much effort at state self-presentation, doubling tourist numbers by 2010 is unimaginable. The commercial tourism sector in Iran looks at years of minimal interest, save for those trip itinerary discussions for going to Tehran in some American uniformed and wannabe warrior circles that no-one can wish to see implemented.
Kuwait
Kuwait’s tourism thrives on paper. The country has a 20-year master plan for tourism development, which was completed at end of 2005 with assistance from the UNDP and UNWTO and spans from vision to action plan. Kuwaiti tourism officials are professionally optimistic about growth of the industry, spurred on by factors such as having less salty beaches than in other locations on the Gulf coast. So far, however, most of Kuwait’s inbound tourism is business travel (estimated at 90%) and the country’s single iconic image is that of Kuwait City and its pointy towers.
During peak time Iraq occupation presence of US troops in the larger area, Kuwait was neighborhood R&R (rest and recuperation) stop for weary liberators but the numbers of American military tourists have gone down. On the other hand, Kuwaitis are world-class in traveling abroad. According to their own tally, 79% journey outside each year and spend upward of 3% of the national GDP on tourist pleasures. Guests from Kuwait spent 52,000 nights in Switzerland last year while it is not known how many Swiss revelers ventured to Kuwait’s emerging attraction, Failaka Island. Budget travelers and backpackers have not figured thus far in the country’s tourism profile but the establishment of low-cost airline Jazeera has helped making air travel to Kuwait more affordable.
Jordan
Claiming 6.5 million tourist arrivals in 2006, Jordan is one of the region’s more experienced countries in the international tourism scene. The country has diversified its visitor base and last year’s arrivals included almost two million Arab tourists. Jordan’s goal is to see 12 million tourists visit in 2010, presumably in an environment of peace and stability in Iraq and elsewhere in the Near East. Terror attacks have challenged the country but the bigger risks for Jordan are concentrated in the regional political situation, as proven in the recent past by tourism downturns in 2003 triggered through the Iraq war and last year through Israel’s summer war on Lebanon. The impact of the Lebanon conflict was a mixed bag for the Hashemite kingdom, which on one hand has seen Gulf tourists redirect their vacations to Jordan because of their fears of potential insecurity in Lebanon but on the other hand led last year to double-digit drops in European tourist visits to Petra and other sites favored by Western tourists. The Aqaba resort developments have recently been complemented by announcements of new projects on the Dead Sea and a project with environmental flavor in the north of the country. The country has made significant gains in attracting lucrative conference and events tourism and has become the Levant’s center for this corporate play on leisure travel. Currently, Jordan is concentrating new tourism promotion activities on Arab countries.
Iraq
Although some highly optimistic reporters recently meant to have detected “swanky hotels” under development in Kurdistan, Iraq remains no tourist’s land. Statements by the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) in praise of the world’s tourism growth to 842 million arrivals in 2006 for obvious reasons do not even mention Iraq under the rubric of regretting unfulfilled expectations. Lebanon was mentioned in sparse, but sympathetic words. The disaster of the present not withstanding, long-term plans for placing Mesopotamia back on the tourism agenda would be well advised, in the spirit of those noble aims of fostering compassion among nations and support for economic development of a country that is suffering unbearably. For the moment, only the worst cynics will have the nerve to play on the kind of visitors who are drawn to Iraq from terrorist hide holes wherever hatred has become a profession. The one valid travel advisory in place is for international officials: drop in unannounced, speak, use photo-op, and withdraw at speed.
Qatar
Big on projects that seek to carve out a market for stop-over visitors whom Qatar wants to woo in ever-increasing numbers through its hard striving and marketing wise ubiquitous national carrier. Investments in hotels and tourism infrastructure are done according to the big-ticket principle. The country implemented a paradigm for its tourism ambitions in 2006 when it hosted the Asian Games as – by the host’s own reckoning – the best and biggest ever. In further self-promotion, Qatar has taken to the staging of conferences that discuss not only business but also matters that can perhaps not be solved on the conference table but are of definite global concern. Propaganda aside, 2006 was a massive and successful year in Qatar’s tourism strategy by drawing in almost double the number of visitors that had come in 2004. Challenges for the country include the high costs of living and the tight supply of hotel rooms, which currently cater mostly to visitors who come on short business trips.
By 2010, Qatar expects to add a big pearl to its crown of tourism attractions when the Lusail, or Pearl, Qatar mega-project will allow well-to-do residents and visitors to dwell on this artificial island and spend their days cruising in more than two million square feet of luxury retail and recreation space. The Lusail project is already dazzling as a stage of elite events, such as the region’s first masked ball in honor of innovators in responsible energy solutions, held fittingly in the Lusail project’s sales and marketing center, a place named The Oyster. Many more events are planned for the site.
Saudi Arabia
The kingdom is the world’s leading destination for religious tourism, with over four million pilgrims coming each year and demand that far exceeds what currently can be accommodated in terms of both the usual tourist facilities and the rituals of faith that are the requirement of the Hajj.
Tourism development beyond the religious realm have for quite some time been discussed by Saudi officials who have in recent years come to appreciate the sector’s economic potential and its importance as source of potential employment for the growing Saudi population. UNWTO forecasts that were issued a few years ago put Saudi Arabia in the top spot of all Middle Eastern tourist arrivals by 2016, with an estimate of 22.5 million, ahead of Turkey and Egypt. Target figures cited in an April 30, 2007, study by UK consulting firm Global Futures and Foresight raise the expectations even further, to 45.3 million visitors by 2020.
The growth of pilgrim arrivals is a foregone conclusion and backed by infrastructure projects at the holy sites and in access improvements that range from airport development to an entire new pilgrimage port in the King Abdullah Economic City development. Other inbound tourism, especially from out-of-region, is a less certain proposition. A Saudi tourism commission, established in 2000 with a veritable prince in charge, has been making preparations for the sector’s growth through new seaside and mountain resorts.
Lebanon
After a May of insurgents and bombs targeting exactly the country’s vacation areas most loved by Gulf tourists, Lebanon’s tourism outlook for 2007 is tending toward nil. Where jubilatory forecasts of 1.6 million visitors and fast growth appeared reasonable in 2006, the picture at the onset of the 2007 summer season is grim enough to keep industry members and government officials from daring a forecast. First-quarter arrivals were 25 to 30% lower than arrivals in the same period of 2006 and an expectation of even one million visitors – allowing for a positive balance in the summer months in reversal of the total tourism crash during the summer war – would be contingent on miraculous improvements in the security situation and the way in which the country appears in international perception.
But that is the problem. Where talkers and worriers focused heavily on their concerns of internal violence, the Lebanese reality was one of coping under avoidance of the – by observers overstated – worst-case scenario of civil war. This means that the risks remain substantial and one cannot assume or exclude anything – but most places in Lebanon are as pleasant to visit and at least as rewarding as they have been in the summers of 2003 and 2004. A fringe benefit for budget travelers: the Beirut downtown has its current shortfalls in atmosphere but there are readily available tent accommodations without any occupants – although the overnighter option is advisable only for people unfazed by olfactory impressions.
Syria
The road to Damascus is slated for widening. Touting itself as every planetarian’s second homeland, Syria not only wants to more than double the number of inbound visitors from 3.5 million last year to 7.5 million by 2010 – the nation’s far-sighted authorities also are pushing a broad development agenda of new private sector investments in all segments of the hospitality industry and public-private partnerships for the fanciest resort projects.
There is a lot to do for developers, beginning with building hotels in Damascus and continuing with expanding tourism infrastructure into the provinces.
The vast need for shaping the industry is reflected in the number of projects offered in the country’s main tourism investment forum; it increased from 37 in 2005 and 40 in 2006 to 101 in 2007. Government officials said that approved investments in the tourism sector last year were in the $2 billion range, although it remained unclear how much of that was under actual implementation. For the coming years, the ministry of tourism put even larger projects on the table, focusing on the Mediterranean coast, the region around Damascus, and the archeological site of Palmyra.
Syria’s rulers have staked a lot on tourism in seeking future revenues. The risks in tourism planning include the country’s lack of services infrastructure, the slow bureaucracy, and regional security issues. If Iraq stays down and if Lebanon becomes a target for more aggressions by hell-bent militants, Syria automatically loses a huge part of its attractiveness to foreign and regional tourists.
