Impact Of Tourism On The UAE Economy
Introduction
Tourism, a very advance and complicated sector, is still very difficult to express. The tourism sector of any country can never be measured easily. Many countries which do not have much foreign goods exchange from their country rely on their tourism income. Even small countries like Singapore and Malaysia are having more than half of their income coming from tourism sector. These are those counties which are growing only because of their tourism income.
Impact of Tourism over the Economy of a Country
The overall economic growth of a country depends upon two things viz. foreign exchange and internal rising income. Among these two, the foreign exchange contributes to approximately 60% of the increase in revenue of the country. Tourism is a part of foreign exchange where the country earns from the incoming and outgoing tourists. It plays a vital role in economic growth of any country. In most of the countries tourism has become their main source of foreign income. A number of OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries contribute to about 65% of tourism activity. Countries like France, Germany and Australia comes under OECD member list. The WTO (World Tourism Organization) reports that about 700 million people traveled to a foreign country in 2000, spending over US$ 480 billion while on the tour. (UAE tourism, 2010)
Positive and Negative aspects of Tourism Income
Of course every market issue comes with a good point and a bad point. The positive point of tourism is that it helps in growing the economy of the country and it increases the value of the country in the world market. It also increases employment opportunities and improves the socio-cultural level of the local mass. The local products reach a good amount value and are commercialized over the world market. But the coin has two sides. The negative side of the coin i.e. the negative points of tourism includes spoiling of the historical and antique monuments of the country. It also contributes to the increase in terrorism. It can also lead to information leakage of the classified documents which can cause some country to easily ground them. No one can ever say to what extent tourism can lead a country to.
Adding to which, on increasing tourism there is a loss to the environmental aspects that is, it results in raising the consumption of ground, water and energy which ultimately leads to destruction of land and environment. The tourists knowingly or unknowingly spoil the cleanliness of some other place. There is an imbalance in the ecosystem and leads to species getting endangered. In the worst cases tourism can also add to an increase in the prostitution business (sexual tourism). Moreover the narcotics market is also flourishing through tourism. It has been observed that most of the youth are getting drugs from the outside mass coming to their country.
What attracts a tourist?
As far as the cultural issues are concerned tourism helps in advancing the cultural aspects of any country to the whole world. Most of the tourists going from one country to another are very much inspired from the cultural outlook of other country. Everyone needs a change, needs a place to go and chill, so they prefer travelling to other country and enjoying the essence of their culture and their way of living. So this is also a route through which the tourism sector can flourish.
Beside the cultural trait the thing that attracts a tourist to go and visit another country is their history. They say, ‘it is the history of a country that affects its future’, well this statement is completely right reflecting the reason why tourist want to visit some other country. People like to visit Egypt to see their historical Pyramids and their famous stories of Mummies. Similarly the seven wonders of the world are visited regularly by thousands of people from different parts of the world. Most of the time people visit other country just for leisure. (UAE tourism, 2010)
Race between countries over tourist income
Seeing the overwhelming tourist coming to a country, every country wants to increase their own share of tourism income and it is quite obvious. To attract more and more tourist, people includes different tourism packages just to increase their income. They are willing to cut down their own food just to give them their share of food and that too not in good sense but only to have better income. Special privileges are given to tourist like some of the specific tourist spots are given much attention by the government. This helps them to have a better show off on their income masses.
UAE, the most attractive tourist spot
The UAE has strengthened its position in the tourism sector by offering a wide range of leisure and sports activity. This is the main point of attraction in UAE. There is no question that UAE is one of the most attractive and most visited country in the whole world. Beside the economic income from the oil business the government does not completely rely on its income from it and it has led them to put more emphasis on making several multi-billion and huge projects in both public as well as private sectors. These have led to attract many tourists from different parts of the world.
According to a report from the WTTC (World Travel and Tourism Council) it is estimated that by the 2015 tourism in UAE would increase by about 7% from today’s data. On the increasing accounts of Dubai’s expensive projects this percentage can even go higher. These include projects such as the Palms in Dubai, Burj Khalifa, the Waterfront and the Marina.
Dubai has been known for its fabulous ethnicity and hospitality. It has been one of the most favorite places with respect to tourist invasion. It has become a worldwide travel and business destination. According to files Dubai has attracted over 5 million tourists from all over the world to visit its great architecture. A wide range of hotels and beach side resorts have made it comfortable for the tourist to stay in Dubai.
Conclusion
From the above discussion it can be concluded that tourism is a sector which has major impact on economy of any country. Factor of being a favorite tourist place can vary country to country. Dubai is one of the favorite tourist places. Tourism also associates some negative factors also. (UAE tourism, 2010)
