After World War II, countries distinctly came to view tourism as a revenue-generating industry. The small but oil-rich Gulf country of the UAE, too, from the mid-2000s has paid special attention to the tourism industry. The UAE government has sought, through extensive investment, to turn this country into a lasting tourism destination in the world. It has done this by developing the UAE's tourist attractions and, of course, creating new sights. Such as building large hotels and towers like Dubai's Burj Khalifa, opening various theme parks such as Legoland and Ferrari World, creating desert safari sites, hosting major sporting competitions and events such as the Abu Dhabi Formula 1 race, and holding large cultural events such as Expo Dubai 2020. The chart below shows tourism industry revenue in the UAE from 1995 to 2020.
An overview of UAE tourism in recent years
Over the past ten years the tourism industry in the UAE has seen steady growth. This growth is the result of this country's macro policymaking and uninterrupted investments in this field. But the COVID-19 pandemic posed a serious challenge to most profitable economic industries and perhaps to tourism more than any other. As a result, the number of tourists globally and also in the United Arab Emirates fell very sharply relative to before the pandemic. With the disease easing in 2021 and 2022, the UAE adopted policies so that the losses of that period would be offset and growth of the tourism industry would return to a normal state. According to the statistics, the number of UAE tourists after the COVID-19 period has grown exponentially. It is forecast that by the end of 2023 it will return to the pre-pandemic level.
Expo Dubai expo 2020
In 2013 the city of Dubai succeeded in winning hosting rights for the Expo 2020 international exhibition among tough rivals such as Izmir in Turkey, Sao Paulo in Brazil, and Yekaterinburg in Russia. Expo is a set of international exhibitions held every five years hosted by a city. At expo an environment is provided for displaying each country's social, economic, and cultural achievements and development outlook. The history of holding this exhibition goes back to the mid-nineteenth century. Expo lasts 6 months at each staging. This exhibition is mainly a place for introducing ideas, technologies, and novel advances. The economic and social importance of this exhibition has expanded to such an extent that it is called the world's third-largest international event after the FIFA World Cup and the Olympic Games.
Dubai, with a one-year delay because of the COVID-19 pandemic and with the slogan "Connecting Minds, Creating the Future," opened Expo 2020 in 2021 as one of Dubai's sights. Expo Dubai, which had one million participants, was visited by 25 million visitors, 70 percent of whom were non-local and foreign tourists in the UAE. During the staging of the expo 2020 world exhibition, one of the UAE's sights, about 270 thousand new jobs were created. According to forecasts, Expo Dubai from the day hosting was accepted in 2013 through the 2031 horizon will have brought more than 120 billion dirhams of revenue for the UAE economy.
Expo 2020 Dubai was also of very high importance for the UAE specifically in terms of tourism. Because the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 had caused the collapse of the UAE tourism industry. But gradually, from the beginning of 2021, COVID-19 restrictions eased and the economic trends of tourism industry revenue turned upward again. The important gift of expo 2020 for the UAE, as one of Dubai's luxury sights, was attracting foreign tourists again after an unprecedented one-year collapse. With the end of Expo Dubai in 2022, the statistics clearly show that foreign tourists' willingness to return to Dubai has increased substantially relative to the same period the previous year.
Health tourism in the UAE
Most countries that have invested in health tourism have naturally, and from the outset, had strong medical and therapeutic foundations. These countries have invested on these same foundations and, by developing them, have highlighted their health-tourism attraction. But what the UAE has done has been more intelligent. The UAE has not naturally had an advanced indigenous medical industry; but the health tourism industry inevitably requires an acceptable number of physicians, and of desirable quality. So the UAE had no choice but to import non-local physicians. This move by Abu Dhabi is intelligent in that it added one more attraction to its usual tourist attractions without itself possessing this capacity in an indigenous form. It is said that this country's investment in this field over the past few years has been more than one billion dirhams.
The future of the tourism industry in the UAE
Growth of the UAE tourism industry was moving on a predictable path when the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted this trend. As noted earlier, the UAE government pursued plans to return this industry to an upward trend, among the most important of which is increasing investment in the UAE's sights and the tourism industry by a substantial amount. It is forecast that through the 2027 horizon this investment will reach more than 74 billion UAE dirhams.
In addition, forecasts show that by the end of 2024 the UAE's tourism share of gross domestic product (GDP ) and also tourism's share of job creation in this country will surpass their levels in the pre-pandemic period. This growth will continue through the 2028 horizon at a substantial rate.
Conclusion
From the early 2000s the UAE entered tourism in earnest and made large investments. These measures included developing tourist attractions and the UAE's sights and creating new sights in this field. It is forecast that through the 2027 horizon this investment will reach more than 74 billion UAE dirhams. The result of these investments was steady annual growth of UAE revenue from the tourism industry.
One of the turning points of the UAE tourism industry was holding Expo 2020 in Dubai. Expo 2020 had one million participants and 25 million visitors, 70 percent of whom were inbound tourists to the UAE. During the staging of the Dubai world expo about 270 thousand new jobs were created. This exhibition enabled UAE tourism to pass through its post-COVID recovery period very quickly.
Sources
www.statista.com/statistics/734691/uae-capital-investment-in-tourism-as-contribution-to-gdp/ : WTTC
www.ceicdata.com/en/indicator/united-arab-emirates/tourism-revenue
s3.amazonaws.com/tourism-economics/craft/Google-UAE-Final2.pdf
medicaltourism.review/countries/united-arab-emirates
www.vaidam.com/knowledge-center/medical-treatment-uae-medical-tourism-uae
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