#Dubai announces record tourism arrivals in 2019

Dubai welcomed a record 16.73 million tourists in 2019, an improvement over the previous two years driven by soaring Chinese, Russian and Omani visitor numbers.

The number of international visitors grew by 5.1 percent last year but is still short of its 2020 target of 20 million tourists.

"While the global economy remains in a state of flux, we can clearly see an exciting opportunity to further grow Dubai's dominance in the tourism industry in 2020," said Dubai Tourism chief Saeed al-Marri, according to the Dubai Media Office. 

By country, Indian tourists topped arrivals with nearly two million visiting Dubai, a slight drop from 2018.

They were followed by 1.6 million Saudi visitors to the city-state, one of seven sheikhdoms that make up the United Arab Emirates.

Like last year, Britons came in third with 1.2 million tourists. Visitors from Oman increased 24 percent to over one million, putting the neighboring country in fourth place.

Chinese tourists rose by 15.5 percent to 989,000 and Russian visitors increased by 7.4 percent to 728,000.

Earlier this month, the UAE introduced a multiple-entry visa scheme valid for five years for all nationalities.

Dubai has the most diversified economy in the region and forecasts record spending this year, with its 2020 budget increasing 17 percent to $18.1 million as it seeks to boost its sagging economy.

The emirate has high hopes that the six-month global trade fair Expo 2020 starting in October will revive its fortunes.

But it still foresees a deficit for the fourth year in a row of $700 million.

The government is hoping Expo will attract 25 million visits, most of them from abroad, and is projecting a 25 percent increase in revenues to $17.4 billion.

Dubai is the only government in the Gulf not dependent on hydrocarbon revenues, and projects around 94 percent of income to come from non-oil sources.

The desert city has large numbers of opulent shopping malls, luxury resorts and even an indoor ski slope.

Source - TheJakartaPost

#Indonesia - Government to boost sustainable tourism in small villages

Tangkahan village near Mount Leuser in North Sumatra and Pemuteran village in Bali are two of many villages in Indonesia that offer unique ecotourism attractions. 

They can set an example for other villages across the country to develop sustainable tourism as envisaged by the government during a United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) meeting recently.

Tourists could enjoy ecotourism activities in Tangkahan such as jungle trekking and elephant riding, said Valerina Daniel, the head of the Tourism Ministry’s sustainable tourism acceleration team. 

“In this village, people who used to be illegal loggers are now part of developing the tourism village by offering packages to tourists, which helps to preserve the forests,” she said in Jakarta recently.

Tourists visiting Pemuteran, which is known as a fishing village where residents are active in marine conservation, can go diving and snorkeling while participating in activities like coral conservation and feeding turtles. 

Tourism Minister Arief Yahya said after the UNWTO meeting that the ministry wanted to create 2,000 tourism villages by the end of this year, an increase from the 1,734 created last year.

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 The program, managed in conjunction with the Villages, Disadvantaged Regions and Transmigration Ministry, is part of the government’s commitment to accelerate sustainable tourism.  

 According to UNWTO guidelines released in 2005, sustainable tourism should take full account of its current and future economic, social and environmental impact while addressing the needs of visitors, the industry, environment and host community.

Meanwhile, Tourism Minister Regulation No. 14/2016 stipulates that sustainable tourism should empower local communities, preserve culture and conserve the environment.

Valerina said the development of tourism villages would be focused around the 10 priority destinations, or 10 New Balis, adding that the development was a sustainable tourism model that suited Indonesia, which has 75,000 villages across the archipelago.

“There are many villages in Indonesia and a village is the smallest instrument where we can directly empower the community by developing its potential while preserving its culture and environment based on the sustainable tourism principle,” she said.

He added that the development of the homestays and villages could be funded by state-owned enterprises’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs.

Another financing option would be using low-interest rate loans from banks with long-term maturity so that local players can thrive, Arief said. 

He added that the government would also establish more Sustainable Tourism Observatories (STOs) in seven locations, adding to the five existing STOs so far. The STOs monitor research and give recommendations to the local government on how to develop sustainable tourism.

The sustainable tourism program was a positive move for Indonesia, although it had yet to become the umbrella policy for general tourism development in the country, said Muhammad Baiquni, a tourism expert at Gadjah Mada University’s Center of Tourism Studies. 

“The sustainable tourism concept could be a good balancer for Indonesia’s tourism, which still tends to be quantity oriented instead of quality oriented,” added Baiquni. 

He, however, reminded the government to make sure that village tourism had a positive impact on society, culture and the environment, as well as putting local communities first so that sustainable tourism could be achieved. 

“Are the villagers benefitting and sovereign on their own land? Does tourism in the villages make their environment and socioeconomic situation better? All of these must be assessed.”

Baiquni suggested that the government should focus on creating tourism villages that were of high standards and sustainable, rather than setting a specific target for homestays and villages.

Source - TheJakartaPost