Page 63 - Contributed Paper Session (CPS) - Volume 7

CPS2029 Amira Al-Salhi
Figure 2: Travel and tourism’s contribution to GDP: business vs leisure, 2017

24.6

Leisure spending
Business spending 75.4

Source: W orld tourism and travel council
Figure 3 shows that domestic travel spending in the GCC generated 36.4%
of direct Travel and Tourism GDP in 2017 compared with 63.6% for foreign
visitor spending. Domestic travel spending is expected to grow by 3.3% in
2018, and rise by 3.5% in 2028 and visitor exports are expected to grow by
3.5% in 2018, and rise by 5.5% in 2028 (WTTC, 2018).
Figure 3: Travel and tourism’s contribution to GDP: domestic vs foreign, 2017

36.4
Foreign visitor spending
Domestic visitor spending 63.6

Source: W orld tourism and travel council

Tourism statistics project in GCC-Stat center
GCC-Stat (the regional statistics center of the GCC) was established in
2011, to build and strengthen the statistical and institutional capacity of
countries to meet the statistical requirements at the GCC level, build a culture
of statistics, and strengthen the correct use of data and information in
decisionmaking and policy formulation. In 2015, the field of Tourism Statistics
was added as one of the priority areas of the Strategic Plan for Common
Statistical Work (2015-2020) (GCC-Stat center, 2015). As part of this, GCC-Stat
was mandated to propose a strategic plan and a detailed work program for
the development of tourism statistic. As part of this, the center evaluated the
status of tourism statistics in the GCC countries. The evaluation showed that
some countries, such as Oman were more advanced in the compilation of
tourism statistics.

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