Though global tourism across the world has registered a smart growth this year, reaching up to 98 pc of the pre-pandemic numbers in the first nine months of the year, the star of the show remains the Middle East or more specifically the six member countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).

According to the UN Tourism, the total international arrivals in the Middle East in the period from January to September this year were 29.1 pc higher than the number of overseas visitors in the same period of 2019 as the region continued to enjoy record growth in the nine-month period.

Within the Middle East, the best performers were members of the GCC countries, notably Qatar which has doubled its tourist arrivals, with 141 pc growth this year and Saudi Arabia, which has much larger arrivals, has recorded rise of 61 pc growth in the first nine months of the year, setting a record for itself. While Qatar is the fastest growing destination so far this year, Saudi Arabia is the third fastest.

According to the UN Tourism, international tourist arrivals in Saudi Arabia remained very strong in the first three months of the year, averaging over 3.1 million per month and with onset of summer, the numbers dipped to 2 million in April and 1.5 million in May, before rising again to 2.8 million in June, primarily by the Hajj pilgrimage, dipping again to 1.8 million in July, 2.1 million in August and just under 2 million in September.

The growth in Saudi Arabian tourism industry is in line with the targets set by the government to boost the total contribution of the tourism industry to the national gross domestic product by more than three times, from the current 3 pc of GDP to 10 pc of GDP and with 100 million international visitors by the year 2030, as outlined in the the Vision 2030 objectives.

Behind Qatar and Saudi Arabia, the fastest growing country in the Middle East is another GCC member, Oman, where tourist arrivals in the nine-month period were up 19 pc and fellow Arab nation Jordan registered a 16 pc growth.