The Middle East tourism market lagged behind other parts of the world in the first eight months of this year.
According to new figures released by United Nations World Tourism Organisation, the region saw a one percent fall in tourist numbers between January and August.
While this was better than in the same period in 2011, the seven percent decline was largely due to the impact of the Arab Spring last year.
Globally, international tourist numbers grew by four percent during the first eight months of 2012, UNWTO said.
Europe (up three percent) consolidated its record growth of 2011 despite on-going economic volatility in the Eurozone.
South-East Asia and South Asia (both up eight percent) led the way in Asia and the Pacific (up seven percent) while in the Americas, which saw a four percent rise, Central and South America continued to show the strongest performances.
In Africa (up six percent), the recovery of Tunisia was clearly reflected in the results of North Africa, which rose 10 as was the rebound of Egypt.
“The resilience of international tourism in a continuing uncertain economy is further confirmed by the positive data on tourism earnings and expenditure,” UNWTO said in a statement.
It said the number of international tourists worldwide grew by 28 million in the review period.
With a record 705 million tourists up to August, UNWTO said it remains confident that one billion international tourists will have travelled the world by the end of the year.
“This growth is a very positive result in view of the global economic situation. We must remain cautious, however, as we have also observed some weaker months during the year, a trend that might return in the remainder of the year,” said UNWTO secretary-general, Taleb Rifai.
UNWTO added that it expects growth of 3-4 percent for the year as a whole, while forecasting a slight slowdown in demand of 2-4 percent for 2013.
“By regions, growth was stronger in Asia and the Pacific and Africa, followed by the Americas and Europe. The Middle East continues to show signs of recovery, with particularly promising results in Egypt,” the statement added.
Among the 10 largest international tourism earners, receipts grew significantly in Hong Kong (+17 percent), USA (+8 percent), Germany (+7 percent), France (+5 percent) and the UK (+4 percent).
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