Qatar tops in travel and tourism share of GDP in GCC last year: Alpen Capital

Qatar had the highest contribution of travel and tourism to GDP (10.3%) in the GCC region in 2021, according to an Alpen Capital study.Majority of travel and tourism spending in Qatar was in the leisure segment ($12.3bn), which constituted 75% of total travel and tourism spending in the country last year, Alpen Capital noted.Travel and tourism spending in Qatar was valued at $16.5bn in 2021, the researcher noted. Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, travel and tourism had become one of the most important sectors in the world economy, accounting for 10.3% of global GDP ($9.6tn) and more than 333mn jobs (10.3% of all jobs) worldwide as of 2019.

Qatar had the highest contribution of travel and tourism to GDP (10.3%) in the GCC region in 2021, says Alpen Capital; Majority of travel and tourism spending in Qatar was in the leisure segment ($12.3bn), which constituted 75% of total travel and tourism spending in the country last year

In 2020, the global travel and tourism sector suffered a loss of almost $4.9tn with GDP contribution dropping to 5.5% due to the ongoing travel restrictions. Total spending declined 51.9% y-o-y to $2.9tn with business spending declining by 61% and leisure spending falling by 49.4% during 2020. As restrictions to mobility eased during 2021, the global travel and tourism sector’s contribution to GDP revived to 6.1%. Total spending improved 26.1% y-o-y to $3.7tn with business spending recovering by 30.9% and leisure spending rising by 25.1% during 2021.Domestic visitor spending increased by 31.4% y-o-y, while international visitor spending rose by 3.8% y-o-y during 2021.According to Alpen Capital, the GCC too witnessed a swift recovery in travel and tourism revenues as contact-intensive services key to the sector were boosted by reopening of the borders and effective crisis management strategies adopted by the regional governments. The sector’s contribution to GCC GDP increased from 6.1% ($98.3bn) in 2020 to 6.6% ($108.8bn) in 2021. The contribution to GDP increased by 10.7% in 2021 compared to the previous year. Total spending increased by 39.1% y-o-y to $77bn during 2021.Notably, the share of business spending in 2021 increased to 19.6% from 18% the previous year, and higher than the global share of 18.2% during the year.Domestic visitor spending in the GCC increased by 27.6% y-o-y to $34.4bn, while international visitor spending rose by 12.6% y-o-y to $42.7bn.Due to the fall in international tourist arrivals in the region, the share of domestic spending increased from 41% in 2020 to 45% in 2021. The share of total employment generated by the sector in the GCC improved from 9.2% of all jobs in 2020 to 9.8% in 2021, representing an y-o-y increase of 5.9%. Prior to the pandemic, total travel and tourism spending in the GCC grew at a CAGR of 14.1% between 2016 and 2019.Prior to the pandemic, total business spending in the GCC grew at a CAGR of 16.1%, while total leisure spending grew at a CAGR of 13.6% between 2016 and 2019, Alpen Capital said. However, the GCC countries have not been immune to the pandemic with both the business and leisure spending witnessing a windfall in 2020. As economic and health conditions improved across the globe, total business spending in the GCC recovered by 51.2% y-o-y and total leisure spending rose by 36.4% y-o-y in 2021, both higher than the global averages.The UAE accounted for 42% of the total business tourism spending in the region during 2021, the highest in the region, as the country hosted the EXPO 2020 Dubai. It was followed by Qatar (27.6%), and Saudi Arabia (10.6%). The share of business tourism in these three GCC nations have been witnessing significant rise, largely driven by the governments’ efforts to promote themselves as a leading destination for meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions (MICE). On the other hand, UAE also accounted for the highest share of 34.1% of the total leisure tourism spending in the region during 2021, followed by Saudi Arabia (33.2%), and Qatar (19.8%). Within Saudi Arabia, the share of leisure tourism stood to be highest (93%) amongst all the GCC nations during 2021, primarily driven by the government’s ongoing initiatives to broaden its scope beyond religious tourism.