Government blamed for plummeting kuwait tourism

The Kuwaiti government has been accused of dragging the tourism sector "into oblivion"...

Last week, HE Sheikh Mubarak AM Al Sabah, chairman of Kuwait-based hotelier Action Hotels told Arabian Business that there was "limited tourism in Kuwait" due to a lack of promotion and infrastructural support by the government.

"We are a very liberal country and no different from any other GCC state but we are not promoted. The lack of infrastructure is not there to attract tourists to be a hub," he added.

The sentiment has been echoed by Sunil D'souza, a regional travel manager at Kanoo Travel, one of the largest travel management companies in the Middle East.

D'souza agreed that "the lack of governmental interest or active participation in the segment... has dragged the tourism into oblivion." He added that it was time for the Gulf state to put action a serious strategy to develop the sector and to attract more international visitors.

The Kuwaiti government tried once before to boost its fledgling tourism industry launching five years ago a 20-year plan in association with the World Tourism Organisation. The aim was develop new resorts and hotels and the Kuwaiti Hotel Owner Association forecast that more than 3,000 rooms would enter the market over the following five years.

However, the sector's performance has been poor and the results have not materialised. Travel and tourism contributes just 3.7 percent to Kuwait's total GDP and research company Euromonitor International expects this to fall to around three percent by 2019.

Source: Arabian Business