COMCEC Tourism Outlook-2016
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1 Introduction
Tourism industry has experienced continued expansion and diversification, becoming one of the
most rapidly developing industries in the world. From an activity maintained by privileged
people only some decades ago, tourism today enables more than one billion people to move
across international borders each year. Globalization of goods and services, increased leisure
time, the technological and transport revolutions and rising middle classes, have positioned
tourism as one of the world’s leading growth tool. Competition between the tourist-receiving
countries has been growing increasingly to obtain the highest share from the expanding
international tourismmarket as a result of the enhanced transportation facilities and additional
income allocated to travel expenses, in line with the improving level of welfare.
Tourism has continued to be a critical sector in both advanced and developing economies for
economic development, poverty alleviation and sustaining employment. Improvement of the
tourism sector contributes to employment, raises national income, and can improve a country’s
balance of payments. In this regard, tourism sector is an important driver of growth and
prosperity and can play a leading role in reducing poverty particularly in developing countries
and the Least Developed Countries (LDCs).
As a trade in services category, tourism ranks fourth after fuels, chemicals and food products. As
a major source of foreign exchange and investment, tourism creates much needed employment
and business opportunities. Tourism’s unparalleled cross-cutting nature and multiple links to
the other economic sectors, further positions it as an efficient multiplier in global development
strategies. In parallel with these circumstances, there is a substantial emphasis on the tourism
sector within the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). COMCEC Economic Summit held in
2009 has defined the tourism as one of the three priority sectors together with agriculture and
transportation. In addition to this, tourism sector is identified by the COMCEC Strategy as one of
the six cooperation areas (the other areas are trade, transportation, agriculture, poverty
alleviation, and finance).
This Outlook 2016 aims to provide a brief account of the situation in the OIC Member Countries.
In this respect, the major issues with regards to tourism sector development in the light of
international tourism trends, the current status of the member countries and some comparisons
regarding competitiveness of the OIC Member States will be analyzed.