Travel and tourism: growth potentials and contribution to the GDP of Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Saudi Arabia is well known in the world for the holy places Makkah and Madinah. Hajjis and visitors come to perform hajj and Umrah every year in Makkah and Madinah from all around the world. Hajj and Umrah visits play a vital role in the inbound tourism of Saudi Arabia. The tourism revenue of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is increasing absolutely but losing its contribution to the GDP proportionately. So, this paper tries to find out the economic activities of all components of tourism sector which are responsible for the negative trend. It also explains the relationships and variability of tourism revenues and expenditures with GDP and offers suggestions to enhance revenue of tourism sector. This study is based upon secondary data obtained from the website of SAMA (Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority) and General Authority for Statistics of Saudi Arabia. In tourism sector of Saudi Arabia, the increasing trend of expenditures of some economic activities is more than its revenue. The increasing trend of expenditures comparatively its revenues lowering contribution of tourism towards GDP. To improve the level of tourism revenue, government has to provide world class facilities and develop new tourist spots and allow the visitors to visit such places according to the Shariah and Kingdom rules. Government has to focus on developing passenger rail transport and other means of transport to connect all the tourist spots to provide easy conveyance, and on improving and developing tourism sector by helping the government and private organizations that are engaged directly or indirectly in providing services to the domestic and inbound tourists to assure more contribution to GDP.

Penta Helix Communication Model Through Community Based Tourism (Cbt) for Tourism Village Development in Koto Sentajo, Riau, Indonesia

“…Developing Koto Sentajo Village as a tourism village based on preserving cultural heritage is very appropriate because a good tourism development must maintain tradition by involving the local community (Ali, 2018;Giampiccoli, 2020;Khamdevi and Bott, 2018). Community-based tourism assistance model delivers community assistances in developing tourism villages, preserve cultural traditions and maintain local wisdom of the community who cares deeply about environmental sustainability.…”

“…The tourism industry can affect economic and community development (Fan et al, 2018;Strydom et al, 2019). Tourism can also contribute to economic growth and increase community sources of income, both directly and indirectly (Ali, 2018;Nagarjuna, 2015). Even tourism has contributed to fighting economic inequality (Giampiccoli, 2020).…”

Impact of Selected Indicators of Tourism Capacity and Performance in the Context of the Unemployment Rate in Slovakia

“…For the exact definition of the impact, we applied a simple regression analysis ( Figure 8). Unemployment (in %) entered the analysis as a dependent variable, and the average price for accommodation (in €), the variable of the highest importance in the previous analysis in models (1), (2) and 3, entered as an independent variable. In the first step, the normality of the residues was analyzed, where the p output of the Shapiro-Wilk test takes the value of 0.736.…”

Mapping Stakeholder’s Role in Community-Based Tourism Development on Hutan Bambu Alu in Polewali Mandar, Indonesia

“…These stakeholders must be more actively involved, including in making and evaluating the new strategies for developing the tourism activity. According to [9], tourism can contribute to economic growth, transportation and infrastructure. The precence of stakeholders like Cahaya Uwai Manurung, FKPA and Alu Village Government is essential in managing community-based tourism in Hutan Bambu Alu and its sustainability.…”