Uzbek Tourism: a comprehensive Analysis

                                

 Fig 1: photo of Uzbekistan. Source: traveltourist.net

         

Uzbekistan is a central Asian country rich in culture and heritage and blessed with exotic landscapes. Prior to becoming a free state in 1991, it was the part of USSR. Though considered as a lower middle income, developing nation; it is enjoying a high GDP growth rate and a high literacy of 99 percentages.  It is one of the two doubly land locked (a land locked country surrounded by land locked countries) countries in the world. The other is Liechtenstein. Uzbekistan aspires to become a tourist hub par excellence. The given report will analyze Uzbekistan as a tourist hub, its present status and its future potential.

Uzbekistan: country profile

The following part of report will give a brief description of Uzbekistan across economical and social parameters.

Fig 2: shows GDP growth rates of Uzbekistan Vis a Vis World, from 2000-10. Source:  World Bank

Fig 3: shows the GDP (PPP) of Uzbekistan in US $ billions from 2002-10. Source: World Bank

Table 1: shows values for Uzbekistan for some selected social parameters.

Uzbekistan: Tourism statistics

The following charts will show the tourism statistics of Uzbekistan

Fig 4: shows the tourism receipt for Uzbekistan for 2007-10, in US $ millions. Source: Euromonitor

Fig 5: shows total no. of world heritage sites in Uzbekistan in comparison to other countries in the nearby region of Central Asia, Europe and Middle East. Source: UNESCO

Table 2:  Hotel statistics for Uzbekistan. (Figures are based on the data generated by a website called “Sairam Travels” & may not be exactly correct.)

Fig 7: shows the aircraft departure statistics (most recent by countries). Source: nationmaster.com

Fig 8: shows the per capita emission of CO2 in Metric Tons for Uzbekistan, in comparison to other countries in the nearby region of Central Asia, Europe and Middle East. Source: World Bank

Uzbekistan: types of tourism

Uzbekistan has huge potential for developing into an exotic tourist destination. The Central Asian country is blessed with plethora of archaeological sites and exotic landscapes. The govt. of Uzbekistan is seeking huge investments in developing infrastructure and promoting the county as a great tourist destination. Around 85 percentage of the tourist visiting the nation are 55 or above. (eturbonews.com, 2011). They like the calm and serene atmosphere of Uzbek cities and come here for visiting archaeological sites and monuments dating back to Alexander & Zoroastrian era. Major tourist cities are- Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva etc. Major tourism period is April, May and September, October. The major types of tourism in Uzbekistan are as follows:

·         Cultural and Historical tourism: tourism in Uzbekistan is primarily centered on cultural tourism. Situated on the cross roads of Silk Road, Uzbekistan is home to around 4000 historical and architectural monuments. It has a plethora of archaeological sites to offer- mosques, mausoleums, palaces, forts, ruined Buddhist temples, monasteries & statues etc.

·         Recreational, Adventure and Nature tourism: Uzbekistan has a wide range of contrasting landscapes & natural beauties - mountains, valleys, desserts, forests, rivers etc. It offers various types of adventure activities such as- trekking, mountain climbing, water sports, river rafting, safaris, bird watching, hunting, fishing, horseback riding etc.  It also has lot of mineral rich springs; hence making it great potential hub for recreational tourism.

·         Business tourism: this fastest growing central Asian country is a potential hub for business related/ MICE activities (meetings, incentive travels, conferences and exhibitions). Fast GDP growth rate, plenty of oil, natural gas and minerals along with an availability of a gamut of cultural & natural offerings can transform it into a regional business tourist’s hub.

·         Religious and Spiritual tourism: many tourists visit Uzbekistan for religious and spiritual purpose. It has a wide range of religious sites such as mosques, tombs, Sufi shrines etc. There are more than 160 Muslim relics located in Uzbekistan.

·         Dental & Medical tourism: Uzbekistan has established state of the art dental clinics in Tashkent and other major cities in the country. These clinics are equipped with top quality, instruments & human expertise.  One of the remarkable feature of these clinics are that- these are much economical than clinics in Europe and Russia.  

UZBEKISTAN: WEB PRESENCE

The following charts and figures will show the web presence of brand Uzbekistan.

Fig 4: shows the number of search results in millions, for Google and Yahoo, on typing, tourism in .   All the nations in the list are developing nation, with population lying between 2o to 40 millions. 

Fig 9: shows number of reviews in Trip Advisor, related to various countries along with Uzbekistan. Source: Trip Advisor. 

Fig 10: shows, number of search result in You Tube, on typing , for instance: Poland tourism. Source: You Tube. 

UZBEKISTAN TOURISM: SWOT ANALYSIS

The following part will do a SWOT (strength, weakness, opportunity and threat) analysis of tourism industry in Uzbekistan.

Strengths

·         Uzbekistan is witnessing high GDP growth rate. Since 2005, its GDP is growing with more than 7 percentages.

·          It has plethora of archaeological sites and natural beauties to offer.

·         It enjoys strong social infrastructure. For instance the literacy rate is exorbitantly high at 99 percentages.

·         The cities of Uzbekistan are known to be calm and peaceful, often loved by cultural lovers and senior tourists.

·         Strategically Uzbekistan is placed on the cross roads of the silk route. Situated in central Asia, it is close to Europe, cash rich Gulf States as well as emerging powers like Russia, China and India.

·         Govt. at Uzbekistan is keeping tourism  high up on their agendas.

Weakness   

·         So far the tourism receipt and arrival have been abysmally low. Uzbekistan still has a long way to go to catch up other major tourist destinations such as Turkey, UAE and Greece in the region.

·         Uzbekistan is definitely placed in a strategic location, favorable for tourism industry, but it also a region blessed with some heavy weights of tourism industry. The Middle East & Central Asia region has two of the top 10 visited cities of the world- Dubai & Istanbul. (enjoyourholiday.com, 2011)

·         Uzbekistan’s tourism industry has abysmally low web presence; as depicted by figure 8,9  and 10, it is even much lower than places like Syria and Romania, not considered as popular tourist destination.  

·         Across the world there is a perception that Uzbekistan offers only cultural & archaeological sites to visit. The adventurous and recreational aspects are still vastly unknown. (eturbonews.com, 2011)

·         It lacks state of the art airlines, convention centers and hotels to bolster its ambition. For instance take the example of small Gulf state UAE, which has got some world class airlines, hotels and convention centers such as- Emirates, Etihad, DWTC, ADNEC, Burj al Arab, Emirates palace etc.  In contrast to this, Uzbekistan does not have such resources.     

Opportunities   

·         The govt. of Uzbekistan is implementing strong measures to promote it as a tourist destination. This will surely influence the industry in the coming time.

·         There are many unexplored tourist places in Uzbekistan. With the help of better marketing strategy, there true potential could be realized.

·         With large amount of mineral sources and spring in the mountain region, Uzbekistan has huge potential for recreational tourism.

·         There are also lot of potential for other forms of tourisms- medical (dental), business and adventure.

·         Uzbekistan is close to 3 of the 4 BRIC nations (Russia, India & China) both geographically as well as culturally. These nations moving along high growth trajectories will constitute a major portion of the outbound tourism in the coming time.  Geographical proximity along with well integrated communication strategy can help Uzbekistan win a substantial pie of outbound tourists from these nations.  

Threat

·         Many countries in the neighboring countries are also keeping tourism high up on their economic agenda. From Qatar to Turkey everywhere ambitious development plans are being incubated such as- Qatar 2022, Turkey 2023, Abu Dhabi 2030, Dubai 2015 etc. Once the plans will get realized, tourism sector across Central Asia & Middle would become very challenging. Such a competitive space may not be favorable for Uzbek tourism industry to up it's ante in the region.

UZBEKISTAN TOURISM: Road map to success

After analyzing the statistics of Uzbekistan, followed by a “SWOT” analysis; it could be inferred that it has all the potential of becoming a successful tourist destination. it is blessed with a large number of archaeological sites and natural treasures. It also has modern tourism infrastructure and is moving across high growth trajectories. In spite of the inherent potential, the statistics so far has been very disappointing. One of the prime reason could be the Uzbekistan has been grossly misunderstood as a nation and as a tourist destination; primarily may be due to minimal efforts in marketing Uzbekistan on part of the concerned authorities. The following part of the report, will discuss a few strategies, which might lead Uzbekistan to success.

Communication, Communication & Communication                

Uzbekistan seems to be suffering from lot of ignorance from tourists across the globe. In spite of having a unique cultural identity, it seems to be perceived as yet another USSR state. Though tough and challenging, it is impediment for Uzbekistan to build a unique brand proposition for itself, which can be done only by more and more communications. It needs to establish itself as one of the fastest growing Central Asian countries, situated on the cross roads of East and West. Uzbekistan is a country which is not only blessed with plethora of archaeological sites and natural treasures; but also armored with modern tourism infrastructure. But until unless, the idea will not be communicated to the myriad tourist spread across the globe, the tourist statistics are not going to get a boosting. So, one of the very 1^st thing it is supposed to do is, advertise and market itself- strongly, largely and widely.  Let the world hear the herald of a new tourist destination!   

The concluding part of the debate will be discussing few of the possible measures, which Uzbekistan can take to transform itself into successful marketing destination.

Strong Web presence

The present landscape of communication is getting transformed. The strong space enjoyed so far by traditional media such as prints, TV and Radio broadcast is encroached upon by the digital media. Unfortunately Uzbekistan still does not seem to be equipped well enough, to adapt itself to the new media landscape. It has an abysmally low web presence across all the major web platforms. Even countries like Syria or Romania, primarily not considered as popular tourist destinations have much stronger web presence than Uzbekistan. In the present time, Uzbekistan cannot afford to have a low web presence. It needs to implement a fully fledged digital media marketing strategy; utilizing regular web platforms such as- websites, banner ads, articles etc; along with social media platforms such as- Face Book, blogs, You Tube etc. 

Cater to China & India

China and India are among the fastest growing outbound tourism markets in the world. With a collective population of around 2.4 billion and high GDP growth rates; they are going to influence the future of tourism heavily.  In India outbound tourism expenditures have grown from US $ 1.3 billion to US $ 8.2 billion in 2007.  Outbound tourist departures have grown from 3.7 million in 1997 to 9.7 million in 2007 (European Travel Commission, 2009). In case of China it is even much stronger. According to figures released by China Tourism Authority (CTA), China had witnessed an international departure of 51 million, growth of 20 % over last year (Dragon Trail, 2011).  Uzbekistan is geographically close to both of them and had shared cultural ties with both the emerging giants since ages. It is high time to leverage it. A unique marketing strategy catering to the two emerging giants can be a good pay off in near future.

Statistics should be made public

Statistics on Uzbekistan are not readily available, even they are not considered very reliable. There are many popular web platforms such as- Budgetyourtrip.com, cost of living index website etc, often used by a large number of tourists worldwide, where data pertaining to Uzbekistan is missing. Similarly, in the annual WEF travel and tourism competitiveness index; an annual report comprising of travel and tourism statistics of almost all the nations in the globe; Uzbekistan is absent. Non availability of data in such an important publication can be detrimental to Uzbek tourism industry and its aspirations. Uzbekistan needs to come up with relevant data and circulate it across all the relevant platforms both off and online. Even if the data are not very attractive, it will help consolidate the image of Uzbekistan as a liberal, modern and globalized state.            

   

Reference

1>    Eturbonews.com, 2011, Uzbekistan working to attract youth to stretch tourism season, available at http://www.eturbonews.com/25816/uzbekistan-working-attract-youth-stretch-tourism-season

2>    Enjouyyourholiday.com, 2011, top 10 visited cities of the world, available http://www.enjoyourholiday.com/2011/04/18/top-10-most-visited-cities-in-the-world/

3>    Eturbonews.com, 2011, Uzbekistan working to attract youth to stretch tourism season, available at http://www.eturbonews.com/25816/uzbekistan-working-attract-youth-stretch-tourism-season

4>    European Travel Commission, 2009, abstract, available at < http://www.etc-corporate.org/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=236 >

5>    Dragon Trail, 2011, China soaring towards new tourism records, available at http://www.chinatraveltrends.com/2011/11/china-soaring-towards-new-tourism-records-more-than-2-billion-domestic-and-over-50-million-outbound-travellers-in-the-first-nine-months-of-2011/

Comparative Analysis of the three rising stars of Asia- Hong Kong, Singapore & Dubai

        Fig 1: Skyline of Singapore. Source: Wikipedia                                                                    

Singapore, Hong Kong, and Dubai are three major city states, of international standing in Asia. All of them have undergone a phenomenal growth in the last few decades and plays a very pivotal role in the economy of their respective nations and even regions. Considered among some of the best marketed destinations in the globe; they bring in a huge amount of investments along with human capital. All these three city states constantly feature among the list of top 10, most visited cities in the world. The following blog will do a comparative analysis of the following places across a wide range of qualitative as well as quantitative parameters.

Introduction

·         Dubai: is one of the most well marketed destinations, across the globe. In the three decades, the small emirate has seen itself leapfrogging from a sleepy town to one of the biggest success saga of Middle East. Placed between the cross roads of East and West, Dubai is also sometimes known as the gateway of the Middle East to the world. The biggest strength of Dubai lies in its visionary and extremely efficient leadership and liberal culture, helping it attract expats from all over the world. It is among the very first Gulf States, that has successfully diversified its economy into various sectors such as-tourism, real estates, retail, trade, media, financial services etc.  The very first thing that comes to mind with brand Dubai is the state of art real estate constructions. Dubai boasts some of the biggest, most expensive, state of the art buildings, hotels and real estate assignments- Al Burj, Burj Khalifa, Palm islands etc. Other than these world famous  landmarks Dubai offers plethora of state of the art shopping malls, amusement parks, museums, resorts and spa, golf courses, sports stadiums, convention centers etc.

 

·         Singapore: the small city state which once got freedom in 1963 from Malaysia; is not only among one of the most visited cities across the globe; but also an epicenter of trade, commerce, finance, technology and innovation. Considered among the biggest success sagas of 20^th centuries, Singapore had witnessed an average growth rate of 7.9 percentages, since 1963.  The Singapore’s success story is based on four pillars- liberal govt. policies, skilled workforce, state of the art sea ports and strategic location. During the time of 60’s and 70’s when this tiny state was suffering from high unemployment, liberal policy frame work was put in place, along with investments in labor incentive industries. In the later stage, Singapore successfully transformed itself from a labor incentive industry to an innovation driven industry. Today it is home to around 500 financial institutions and most of the MNCs of the world. It also has a numero uno position in the “ease of doing business index”. (World Bank data, 2010) Singapore is also great tourist hub with state of the art hotels, resorts, shopping malls, casinos etc. In 2009, it received 9.7 million tourists and was among the list of most visited cities in the world. (annual report on tourism statistics 2009, 2011)

·         Hong Kong: it’s a place where East meets the West. Before being handed over to China in 1997, Hong Kong was under British Rule. Even today other than foreign relations and military defense, it maintains a high degree of autonomy. In contrast to mainland China, it enjoys a capitalist structure marked by free trade and low taxation. It is considered as one of the freest economies of the world. Famous economist Milton Friedman once described that if someone wants to see free economy, he should go to go to Hong Kong. Like Singapore it is a major trade and financial center. Like the other three Asian tigers (Singapore, Taiwan and South Korea) Hong Kong underwent industrialization during 60’s and successfully transformed into a service sector economy during 80’s. In 2010 service sector has accounted for 92.5 percentage of GDP, against Industry contributing just 7.4 percentages. (CIA World Fact Book, 2010). A blend of Chinese and Western culture, Hong Kong is also a fabulous tourist destination attracting tourists from all over the globe.     

Demographics

All these three places are trade centers and financial capitals of their respective regions, besides being great tourist destinations; there by attracting a large number of expats- businessmen, travelers, working professionals, academicians, celebrities etc. According to the survey conducted by Dubai Statistics Center in 2006, 17 percentages of the population consists of local Emiratis. 71 percentages of the population consist of Asian which mainly includes- Indian, Pakistani, Srilankan, etc. 3 percentage of population has been categorized as Western.  In contrast to this in Hong Kong, according to 2006 census 95 percentages of the work force is Chinese followed by Filipino (1.6 percentage), Indonesian (1.3 percentage) and others 2.1 percentage. (Index Mundi, 2011). In Singapore out of the total population of 5.08 million, 3.77 million are Singapore residents against 1.31 million foreign residents. (Comprising of tourists) Out of 3.77 million, residents 3.23 million are citizens where as 0.54 millions are permanent residents. Major ethnic communities include Chinese, Malay, and Indians etc. 0.3 percentage of the population can be categorized as Western.  (Department of statistics Singapore, 2011) 

 

Fig 2: compares the population of three states for the year 2010. Source of data: Dubai Statistics center, Singapore Statistics center and CIA World fact book.

Fig 3: shows the population of the three city states in millions, over the period of time. Source of data: Hong Kong year book, Dubai Chamber of Commerce, Department of Statistics Singapore

Table 1: compares the three city states across various parameters. Reference year: 2010; Source of data: US department of State, Index Mundi etc

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                Table 2: compares the three city states across geographical parameters.

Economics

The following section will compare the three city states across some of the economic parameters- Gross Domestic product (GDP), Foreign Direct Investments (FDI), Cost of living Index etc.

Fig 3: showing the GDP of the three city states, US $ billions, for the year 2010. Source: CIA Fact Book, Al Arabia news.

Fig 4: showing the GDP growth rate of the three city states in the past few years. Source: World Bank, Dubai Statistics Center.

Fig 5: showing FDI inflow of the three city states in US $ billions, over the last 6 years. Source: World Bank, Dubai Statistics center.

Table 3: compares the 3 city states across various cost of living indices. Source: NUMBEO

Tourism statistics

Other than being epicenter of trade, commerce and financial activities, the three states are also considered among some of the greatest tourist destinations in the globe. Constantly featuring among the top 10 most visited cities in the globe, they have some of the most magnificent hotels, resorts, casinos, convention centers, amusement parks etc. The following line graph of the report will compare the 3 city states in terms of annual tourist arrivals

Fig 6: showing annual arrival of tourists in millions. Source: Dubai Tourism and Commercial Marketing (DTCM), Press releases by Hong Kong tourism board, Singapore Tourism Board. The comparatively higher figure for Hong Kong is on account on Chinese travelers, which account for approximately 2/3^rd of tourist arrival. 

BRAND ESSENCE

This part of the report will try figuring out one word, which can describe the brand of these city states.

Dubai had successfully ventured into wide range of activities ranging from various forms of tourism (leisure, shopping, sports, cultural, dessert, business etc); trade, businesses, industries etc; but one word describing brand Dubai can be luxury. It’s a place where modern day dynamism blends well with traditional Arabic tranquility. Be it the state of the art hotels or resorts; shopping malls or villas; everywhere Dubai reflects luxury. For Singapore, that one word could be innovation. Singapore is the hub of high tech innovation. According to Global Innovation Index 2011, Singapore has been ranked as 3^rd most innovative nation in the world and 1^st in Asia. (Sgentrepreneurs.com, 2011). Similarly one word that can reflect the brand essence of city state Hong Kong could be liberty. Hong Kong is one of the most free and liberal states in the world. It practices liberty in almost every sphere of life- economic, social, political, etc. It offers a top notch living conditions or its residents. Ranked 13^th on the Human Development Index, it is one of the best places to live. Singapore has a rank of 26, whereas Dubai (UAE) has a rank of 30. (Human Development Index and its Component, 2011)

Fig 8: Shows the brand essence of the three city states in one word.

ANALYSIS & conclusion

The given report had tried analyzing the three city states of Asia across various parameters related to demography, economy, tourism etc. With the help of various charts it could be seen that Dubai is still catching up with the Singapore and Hong Kong and will take some time to reach their level. Dubai is an Emirate with extremely big ambitions. For instance by 2015, the Dubai Tourism and Commercial Marketing aims at reaching an annual tourist arrival of 15 million. Though time will tell how far Dubai will excel to realize this ambition; but if realized Dubai will be the most visited tourist destination in the world. Similarly in other spheres also the 2nd largest emirate of UAE holds huge ambitions. Exp: Jebel Ali, the largest man made harbor is also undergoing expansion and once completed in 2030, it is expected to be the biggest container port in the world.



The social and economic structures of these three city states have their own similarities as well as differences. Singapore and Hong Kong are quite synonymous to each other in terms of knowledge economy, high degree of social freedom & liberty and international trade centers; Dubai offers a slightly different case. Though Dubai has successfully diversified its economy (presently Hydrocarbons account for only 2.1 percentage of GDP, contrary to 1985, when it had a giant share of 55 percentages) into real estate, trade and tourism; it is still far behind from becoming a knowledge economy. Similarly in terms of demographic break up, Dubai’s economy is completely dependent on expats, in contrast to local Emiratis which constitute only 17 percentage of population. (Dubaidreams.net, 2011). It is the other way round in Hong Kong and Singapore.

Table 4: shows the diminishing percentage of oil in Dubai’s GDP. Source: USA Today, AME info.com, Dubai Chamber of Commerce

Dubai has its own advantage. It is yet to realize its full potential and hence has a long way to go. In the form of its ambitious 2015 plan, it aims at implementing strong social and economic reforms and transformations. It is one of the fastest growing Emirates and prior to the economic crisis that led to real estate bust; it was enjoying a double digit growth rate. Considered as an epicenter of trade, finance, investments, culture and tourism in the Middle East region, it had help attracting a lot of investments, trade and human capital for the region.

If IT and Technology defines Singapore and Hong Kong; real estate defines Dubai.  It is marked by luxury, which gets reflected in the wide range of high profile construction projects incubated by the Emirate. One of the reasons, it can accommodate such projects, is the availability of large amount of free space. While Singapore and Hong Kong are becoming vertical cities, Dubai still enjoys a population density of 408 per square Kilometer, much lesser than most of the major cities in the world. It is also comparatively economical in comparison to the other two cities. (as shown in table 3). In a nutshell, Dubai has carved a unique niche for itself. Created amidst a dessert, it has successfully transformed itself from a sleepy oil rich emirate, where once hydrocarbon accounted for more than 50 percentage of GDP to one of the most economically diversified and socially liberal state in the region.

In terms of political structure Dubai and Singapore share a similar kind of structure. Both of them are blessed with visionary political leadership, which played a pivotal role in their exorbitant growth. They have got an extremely efficient political and bureaucratic apparatus, known for executing big projects swiftly. Contrary to this in Hong Kong, govt. has a minimal role to play in the economic ambit. In fact Hong Kong has one of the most liberal economies across the globe.   


In spite of having differences across various economic and social parameters, there are lots of things common in the three states. On Economic front, all of them have liberal economic policies marked by low tax and tariff rates, helping them attract a large amount of investments and top notch human capital. All of them have shown phenomenal growth rate in the recent past. They share a lot of similarities in terms of landscape and geography. They are islands, have extended coastlines, and are situated in strategic locations, which helped them morphed into excellent trading centers. Not blessed with much of exotic natural landscapes, they made huge investments in developing state of the art hotels, beach resorts, golf courses, convention centers, shopping malls; there by transforming into magnificent leisure and business tourism destination. High tourist arrivals have also been very advantageous for their retail sector. On social front, all three of them are marked by open and liberal cosmopolitan culture, attracting expats from all over the globe and providing a platform to grow and flourish. This ability of attracting diversified human resource from various parts of globe had eventually been very beneficial to them.



The three city states converges as well as diverges across different parameters; but one thing that is common to all is the phenomenal success story they have scripted for themselves in such a small interval of time. They came from nowhere and today are destinations of international standing. These city states, developed from scratch, are product of- strategic planning, die hard entrepreneurial spirit and openness towards change. Hong Kong, Singapore and Dubai-these are the rising stars of the East, without any substantial past, but definitely with an illustrious present and future.
 

Comparative Analysis of the tourism sector of the Gulf countries and Nordic countries

                              Fig 1: Travel & Tourism competitiveness report (Source: The Armenian Observer Blog)
                                    
In the world of tourism, geographical clusters play a very important role. Attractiveness of individual states does not only depend on them, but a large part of it also depends on the attractiveness of the whole region as a tourist destination. This concept is more applicable in small states. Bigger state like India and China or heavily popular and strongly marketed states like Dubai or Singapore are quite independent of their regions but for other places regional clusters do play a very significant role. For exp: Jordan’s attractiveness as a tourist destination will be dependent on the attractiveness of Arab world / MENA region.

It has following impacts:

·         Marketing and Branding: helps in the marketing of the whole cluster/ region. If a region has quite a good number of tourist destinations, then it helps in promoting the whole region as a tourist destination, eventually helping in promoting, often overlooked locations.   

·         Complimentary packages: these days’ tourists prefer tour packages comprising two or more nations. Hence availability of a good number of tourist destinations in single region helps in developing better tour packages. For exp: lot of tourists visiting UK prefers combo packages comprising of England, Ireland, and Scotland. Tourists visiting South East Asia prefer combo packages comprising of Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand.      

·         Regional cooperation: Tourism is a highly capital intensive industry and it requires huge investment in infrastructure as well as marketing. Regional economic cooperation among the nations in a region enables in developing better infrastructure- in the form of hotels, resorts, roads, airports etc.

The following blog article will do a comparative analysis of two geographical cluster- Gulf countries and Nordic countries. Both the clusters consist of economically well off nations with small population and surface area. Hence they provide a good case to do comparison. The documents used for this are – The Global Competitiveness report and World Economic Forum travel and tourism competitiveness. (Some of the terms have been directly used from WEF report. Their meanings have been explained in the end. )    

COMPARISON OF Economic & social indicators FOR THE SIX GULF STATES

Table 1: Showing population of the six Gulf States. (Source: WEF, travel and tourism competency report 2011.)

Aggregate Population: 37.8 Million

Aggregate Surface Area: 2423.2 (000 SQ KM)

Fig 2: Pie chart showing GDP of individual Gulf States. (Source: WEF travel and tourism competency report 2011.)  

Aggregate GDP: US $ 863.6 Billion

Fig 3: Showing per capita GDP (PPP, US $) .Source: WEF, travel and tourism report, 2011. 

 Fig 4: Showing environment performance index of the six Gulf States. (Source: WEF, travel and tourism competency report, 2011.) 

The Gulf States are comparatively small states with Saudi Arabia being the biggest and most populous while Bahrain being the smallest and least populous. Saudi Arabia on account of being the biggest state is also the biggest economy, followed by UAE. Qatar, one of the fastest economies of the world enjoys the highest per capita GDP among the Gulf States. Other Gulf States shows a high degree of uniformity in terms of per capita GDP with per capita GDP lying between US $ 25,000- 35,000. The average environmental performance index is 127, with UAE showing the highest value of 152 and Saudi Arabia showing the lowest value of 99.

 Tourism statistics of gulf state

  Fig 5: Showing T&T industry and economy receipt (US $ Billion) of the six Gulf Nations. Source: (WEF, travel and tourism competency report, 2011.)

Fig 6: Showing, per capita T&T industry and economy receipt (US $) of the six Gulf Nations. Source: (WEF, travel and tourism competency report, 2011.)

Table 2: Showing the overall competencies of six Gulf Nations. Source: WEF travel and tourism industry report 2011.   

Analysis: Dubai is considered as gateway of, Middle East to the whole world and it gets reflected in the above figure. In both categories- Tourism receipt as well as tourism receipt as a percentage of GDP, UAE holds a numero uno position. UAE is followed by Saudi Arabia which receives a considerable amount of tourism receipt on account of conducting the very famous Hajj festival, where Muslim pilgrims from all around the globe come to Mecca. For most of the other Gulf nations, tourism still does not seem to be playing any significant role. 

Table 3: Showing population and surface area of the five Nordic nations. (Source: WEF travel and tourism competency report, 2011)

Fig 7: Showing the GDP (US $ Billion) of the five Nordic Nations. Source: (WEF travel and tourism competency report, 2011)

Fig 8: Showing the per capita GDP (PPP, US $) of the six Nordic Nations. (Source: WEF, travel and tourism competency report, 2011)

Fig 9: Showing environmental performance index of the six Nordic Nations, 2011. (Source: WEF, travel and tourism competency report, 2011) 

 Like Gulf countries, Nordic countries are also small nations with Iceland being the smallest and Sweden being the largest. Considered as one of the safest and happiest places in the globe, these states enjoy very low rate of crime, high per capita GDP and high standard of living. Most of the nations have per capita GDP in the range US $ 35,000-40,000, with Norway being an exception. The Nordic nation has a per capita GDP of US$ 51,980. One of the remarkable features of the Nordic nations is exceptionally good environmental performance index. The Numero Uno position in this ranking, which comprises of 139 nations, is with Iceland, smallest Nordic nation. Al most all the nations other than Denmark are ranked within 15 in this ranking.   

          Table 4: Showing Travel and Tourism competency, of the five Nordic Nations. (Source:     Travel and Tourism Competency 2011.)

Average attractiveness: 5.1

Fig 10: Showing T&T industry and economy receipt (US $ Billion) of the Five Nordic Nations. Source: (WEF, travel and tourism competency report, 2011.)

Fig 11: Showing, per capita T&T industry and economy receipt (US $ Billion) of the Five Nordic Nations. Source: (WEF, travel and tourism competency report, 2011.)

Comparison

 Table 5: Comparison of Gulf and Nordic Nations across various parameters. (Source: WEF travel and tourism report, 2011)

Fig 12: Comparison of Gulf and Nordic Nations across T&T industry and economy receipt. (Source:  WEF travel and tourism report, 2011)

 Fig 13: Comparison of scores of Gulf and Nordic Nations across, various WEF competitive parameters. (Source: WEF travel and tourism report, 2011)

Analysis: On being compared, the Nordic nations surely score better than the Gulf countries in almost all the parameters, socio-economic as well as statistics pertaining to tourism. Nordic nations have bigger aggregate GDP and enjoy higher per capita than the Gulf countries. An area where the Nordic nations have done exceptionally good is environmental performance and there seems to be a wide gap between the two clusters, across this parameter. Coming to T&T industry receipt, Nordic nations have received US $ 37.3 billion against US $ 22.93 billion received by Gulf countries. An important trend which could be seen over here is that, when compared across T&T economy receipt, the difference has narrowed down. Nordic nations have received US $ 114.83 billion against US $ 103 billion received by Gulf countries. The reason for this small difference could be the multibillion dollar tourism development projects, being incubated all across the Gulf. Given the fact that oil will not last for long, Gulf countries are realizing the significance of economic diversification and tourism is high up on their agenda. In nations where tourism does not contribute much in the GDP, huge investments are being made in developing state of the art tourism facilities. Qatar- the tourism industry in the state estimated at US $ 961 million in 2010 constitutes just 0.9% of the GDP but on account of some of the extravagant tourism development assignments, the overall economic impact is estimated at US $ 9,348 millions, constituting 8.4% of the GDP. (WEF_TravelTourismCompetitiveness Report, 2011) When compared across various WEF competitive parameters, Nordic nations again have a considerable edge over their Gulf counter parts. Comparatively lean across parameters such as T&T business environment and infrastructure and high across others such as human cultural and natural resources and regulatory frame works. With an average score of 5.1 in the overall competitiveness, the Nordic nations are among the top performers in the overall WEF ranking, consisting of around 139 nations where as with an average score of 4.3, Gulf countries are among the “slightly better than the average band”.  

Since both the clusters share a lot of similarity, in terms of various socio economic parameters, Nordic nations, with a better performance with the Gulf countries, could be a good role model for the Gulf countries.           

Use of key terms

·         The T & T competitiveness index is a measurement of factors that make a country, an attractive tourist destination. It consists of T&T regulatory frame work, T&T business environment, T&T human cultural and natural resources.  Countries are ranked on a scale of 1 to 6, with one being the lowest and 6 being the lowest.

·         T&T regulatory frame work consists of Policy rules and regulation, environmental sustainability, safety and security, health and hygiene and prioritization of travel and tourism. Countries are ranked on a scale of 1 to 6, with one being the lowest and 6 being the lowest.

·         T&T business environment and infrastructure consists of air transport, ground transport, tourism, and ICT infrastructure along with price competitiveness. Countries are ranked on a scale of 1 to 6, with one being the lowest and 6 being the lowest.

·          T&T human cultural and natural resources consist of human resources, affinity to tourism, cultural and natural resources. Countries are ranked on a scale of 1 to 6, with one being the lowest and 6 being the lowest.

·         T&T industry as a narrow perspective of T&T activity that captures the production-side

              Industry contribution that is, direct impact only (WEF report, p-105)

·         The T&T economy is a broader perspective of Travel & Tourism that takes into consideration the direct as well as the indirect contributions by traditional travel service providers and industry suppliers within the resident economy. (WEF, p-105)

  

Reference

ü  WEF_TravelTourismCompetitiveness Report, 2011, Qatar-Country/Economy profile, p-316