GCC Tourism Powers $254.7Bn Economic Contribution in 2025

JEDDAH: The Gulf Cooperation Council tourism sector contributed approximately $254.7 billion to the economy in 2025, growing 7.3 percent annually since 2019, according to an official.

The growth rate surpassed the global rate of 6.7 percent, according to Jassem Mohammed Al-Budaiwi, GCC secretary general, who spoke at an event in Muscat, Oman.

The figures were highlighted during the eighth Regional Workshop on Innovation in Tourism Statistics, a two-day event organized by the GCC Statistical Center and held on Aug. 31 under the theme “Innovation in Tourism Statistics: Data Integration and Trend Analysis,” Oman News Agency, known as ONA, reported.

“The workshop aims to introduce the concept and significance of integrating data and statistics from multiple sources, inventory tourism data sources and assess their suitability for statistical use, and understand the requirements for data exchange, including methodologies for linkage, matching, calibration, and reconciliation of results,” ONA reported.

GCC tourism strategy advances

The growth coincided with an average implementation progress rate of approximately 73.8 percent toward the objectives of the Gulf Tourism Strategy through 2025. The bloc has already advanced several joint initiatives under the strategy.

In December 2024, its committee discussed regional tourism promotion, statistical and knowledge exchange, and unified tourist guidance.

The GCC countries received approximately 75.7 million tourists, with inbound visitor spending reaching around $131.9 billion, while the tourism sector accounted for about 5 percent of international tourist movements and 6.9 percent of global tourism receipts, Qatar News Agency, or QNA, cited Al-Budaiwi as saying.

GCC focuses on stronger tourism statistics

The workshop was attended by officials and 30 specialists involved in producing tourism statistics, representing the statistical authorities of the GCC countries.

Discussions throughout the workshop addressed several core themes, including the challenges of relying on a single source in producing tourism statistics, the tourism data source ecosystem, the legal, institutional, and technical prerequisites for data exchange, and integration methodologies that enhance the quality, consistency, and comparability of statistics across GCC states.

Al-Wahaibi said the tourism sector is experiencing sustained growth and has become a key pillar of national development plans, with tourism statistics helping measure its economic contribution and guide policy, investment, and development decisions.

The GCC’s tourism expansion comes as the wider Middle East has emerged as one of the world’s fastest-growing tourism regions. In early 2024, UN Tourism said international tourist arrivals in the Middle East were 22 percent above 2019 levels, making it the only region to have surpassed its pre-pandemic level at the time.