In 2020, the UAE ranked among the top 20 countries in the world in five indices that were related to the competitiveness of the tourism sector in the country according to the Federal Competitiveness and Statistics Centre (FCSC).
The achievements in the tourism industry included the indexes in the Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report issued by the World Economic Forum in addition to the World Competitiveness Yearbook.
According to the Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report, UAE secured the first position in the world in the index of the presence of the largest car rental companies, while it came sixth in the sustainability and development index and seventh in the quality of tourism infrastructure index.
The UAE’s distinguished infrastructure and huge facilities are the largest in the Middle East and the Arabian Gulf region, and it is the result of a comprehensive integrated work strategy implemented by the government over the past years.
The World Competitiveness Yearbook ranked the UAE 17th in the tourism revenue index. According to the report, the country also secured the eighth position in the world in marketing effectiveness to attract tourists.
Despite the economic slowdown due to the pandemic, the UAE’s economic sectors, including tourism and travel, have quickly managed to return to achieving good growth rates, which reflects the strength of the national economy in general.
The data issued by FCSC shows that the tourism and hotel sectors in the UAE witnessed a growth of 158.3 percent during the third quarter of 2020 compared to the second quarter of the same year.
The number of hotel guests in the country increased to about 3.385 million from July to August of 2020, compared with 1.31 million from March to the end of June of the same year.
The growth in the number of guests coincided with an increase in the number of hotel establishments “hotels and hotel apartments” that returned to work as their number increased to 1,032 by the end of Q3 2021, compared to 929 facilities by the end of Q2 2020. The number of hotel rooms increased from 135,031 rooms to 164,935 rooms during the same comparison periods.
Over the past years, the UAE has worked to launch many initiatives, both at the federal and local level, to develop the tourism and travel sector. These steps have supported the country to become one of the most important tributaries of economic diversification in the country.
