JEDDAH: The Arab Tourism Organization (ATO) inked a strategic partnership agreement with the International Strategic Management (ISM) company headquartered in Detroit, United States, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported.
The signing occurred in the presence of Dr. Bandar bin Fahd Al Fahid, the president of the ATO, and Dr. Faris Alami, the CEO of the company, at the ATO’s main headquarters in Jeddah.
The deal comes as an extension of the ATO’s efforts to develop and expand the tourism industry in the Arab world and to strengthen competitiveness in the travel and tourism sector, according to the Saudi Press Agency.
The partnership aims to achieve innovation and growth within the tourism sector in Arab nations.
The ISM company, leveraging its accumulated expertise and specialized experts in the sector, will collaborate with the ATO to achieve its targets and strategies, aligning them with the Arab League’s Sustainable Development Plan 2030.
The ATO emphasized the significance of this partnership as it represents a real opportunity to enhance the role of Arab nations in developing their tourist destinations to achieve sustainable development.
According to the organization, it is likely that the total contribution of the travel and tourism sector to the worldwide gross domestic product will reach 15 percent, whereas the total contribution of the travel and tourism sector to the gross domestic product worldwide before 2019 did not exceed 10 percent.
Tourism Revenue
The ATO further projected that revenues from tourism and travel will increase at an annual growth rate of 3.4 percent until 2027, reaching over a trillion dollars in revenue.
Moreover, it is also likely that the global tourism sector’s job market will reach 430 million jobs by 2030, representing an increase of over 30 percent compared to 2023.
