City slickers

Kuwait City is a key destination for corporate travellers from the oil and petroleum industry.

Holidaymakers from Saudi Arabia head to Kuwait for weekend breaks during the summer months.

Squeezed between the borders of Iraq, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the shores of the Persian Gulf, Kuwait still bears the scars of a troubled history, but oil dollars and the arrival of new businesses are driving the growth of business tourism and attracting some international hotel operators to consider the leisure option.

Prior to the Iraqi invasion in 1990, the oil and petroleum industry made Kuwait a hub for international business travel, but the majority of the five-star hotels in the city were either destroyed or burned out during the Iraqi occupation, leaving the city bereft of quality accommodation when visitors started to return.

The oil rich nation has ultimately recovered economically from its injuries but some corporate travellers are still put off by Kuwait's proximity to Iraq, and the leisure market is yet to really emerge, except for a handful of Saudi Arabian holidaymakers who head to Kuwait City during the summer months.

The corporate travel and visiting friends and relatives (VFR) markets are key drivers of the region's air travel growth.

With new hotels coming online in the business sector, the aggressive growth of Jazeera Airways, and the imminent expansion of national carrier Kuwait Airways, the country's business tourism industry is thriving.

When Jazeera launched in October 2005, it flew to five destinations from its first hub in Kuwait, and in the course of one year, it nearly doubled the number of passengers flying in and out of Kuwait International Airport.

"Kuwait has already established itself as a hot destination for business," explains Jazeera's president and CEO, Marwan Boodai.

"We will continue to build and create easier access to the country through more destinations, higher frequencies, and lower fares. As for having a holiday division, I wouldn't rule it out. However, our focus at the moment is to continue building our destinations network, continue building our fleet, and launch additional hubs in the Arabian Peninsula."

Kuwait Airways' director of marketing and sales, Ahmed Al-Hilal explains that regional leisure visitors do come to Kuwait at certain times of year, but that other factors continue to hamper the growth of the market.

"During Eid we do receive a lot of families from the GCC - mainly from Saudi Arabia and Bahrain - but normally those visitors already have friends or relatives that are living in Kuwait," he says.

"There is a growing demand in the region, but unfortunately the government is still very restrictive with visas."

GCC nationals don't require a visa, but other nationalities do, and the application process is unclear and often changes, he adds.

Al-Hilal says services to Beijing, South Africa and Manchester will be launched by the end of this year, while a recent press statement claimed that flights to the US and Canada are on the cards.

The airline is also in talks with Boeing and Airbus concerning the expansion of its fleet, with plans to purchase between 30 and 34 passenger aircraft.

Inbound business

While tour operators facilitate the comings and goings of corporate travellers, there are only a handful of Kuwait-based inbound operators that cater to the leisure market.

Kuwait Tourism Services Company (KTSC) was formed by the Kuwait Airways Corporation in mid 1997 to promote inbound tourism. Today the company offers visitors a range of sightseeing tours in and around the city.

Leisure tourists who do venture into Kuwait will find a typical selection of Arabic cultural attractions ubiquitous throughout the Middle East; traditional dhow cruises, Bedouin art, and mosques and desert safaris, but those who delve a little deeper can find some unique attractions that are 100% Kuwaiti.

For example, KTSC offers a programme called Black Gold Adventure, which takes visitors on a tour of the Kuwait Oil Display Centre 40kms away from the city.

The trip also includes a visit to the ruins of the Al Qurain Museum, or Martyrs House, which gives a brief history of the resistance force that fought during the 1991 invasion of Iraq, a tour of the Kuwait Marine Museum, and a photo stop at Al Boom Dhow Restaurant & Al Hashemi II, the world's largest wooden dhow.

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