Nordic tourism to GCC to reach US$810 million by 2024: ATM report … reports Asian Lite News
Nordic tourists travelling to the GCC from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Iceland, are expected to generate an estimated US$810 million in travel and tourism revenue by 2024, according to data published ahead of the Arabian Travel Market, ATM, 2020.
The latest Colliers International research, commissioned by ATM organiser Reed Travel Exhibitions, predicts the UAE will witness the highest growth, with the total tourism spend by Nordic visitors projected to reach $718 million by 2024, an increase of 36 percent when compared with figures from 2018, and the tourism spend per trip expected to reach $2,088.
Building on this, Saudi Arabia is expected to witness the second-largest increase, followed by Bahrain, with the total Nordic tourism spend estimated to reach $86,670,000 and $53,000,000 respectively, by 2024.
Danielle Curtis, Exhibition Director ME at ATM, said, “The Nordic countries’ outbound tourism market has experienced incremental growth over the last five years, with 50.5 million overseas visits made by residents in 2018 alone. And with Nordic citizens enjoying one of the highest average incomes in the world and being amongst the world’s highest spenders while travelling abroad, the GCC is looking to capitalise on their spending power over the next five years.”
“Adding to this, the ATM is witnessing this growth first-hand with the number of delegates, exhibitors and attendees interested in doing business with these countries increasing by 35 percent between 2018 and 2019,” he continued.
According to the Colliers data, approximately 383,800 Nordic citizens will travel to the GCC in 2024, with Swedish tourists leading the number of arrivals at 191,900.
“Driving this demand in the UAE, Emirates currently operates direct flights to Norway, Denmark and Sweden, and last year introduced a direct flight to Iceland, following the closure of low-cost Icelandic carrier, WOW air. Meanwhile, Norwegian Air operates direct flights between Oslo and Dubai five times a week and flydubai has direct flights between Dubai and Helsinki in Finland,” Curtis said.
Adopting ‘Events for Tourism Growth’ as the official show theme, ATM 2020 will see a host of seminar sessions discussing the impact events have on tourism growth in the region, while inspiring the travel and hospitality industry about the next generation of events.
Arabian Travel Market is set to take place at the Dubai World Trade Centre from 19th-22nd April 2020.