ع
GCC tourism ministers convened in Manama on Thursday for their 10th meeting and reached agreement on accelerating implementation of key joint projects to strengthen the sector across the bloc. The gathering endorsed the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s candidacy for membership on the Executive Council of UN Tourism representing the Middle East for the 2028 to 2031 term. According to officials who attended the session hosted by Bahrain, the decisions reflect a push to enhance coordination among the six member states and position the region as a premier global destination.
The ministers at the meeting in the Bahraini capital committed to activating a tourism sector recovery plan drawn up in earlier sessions. They also approved steps to develop shared tourism packages, programs and cross-border routes that would allow visitors to explore multiple countries more easily. In addition the gathering called for stronger unified international promotion campaigns and the creation of a unified Gulf system for collecting and analyzing tourism data and statistics.
Cooperation in innovation, digital transformation and workforce development formed another pillar of the agreements reached by the GCC tourism ministers on Thursday. The session reviewed progress on a unified tourist guide license and a reference manual for hotel classification standards applicable across the region. These measures build on preparatory discussions held in recent months including a virtual meeting of undersecretaries earlier in the week that forwarded recommendations to the ministers.
Gulf-Stat figures show that international tourist arrivals in the GCC reached 72.2 million in 2024, an increase of 51.5 percent from pre-pandemic levels. The Statistical Centre for the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf reported that tourism revenues climbed to $120.2 billion that year, up 39.6 percent from 2019. Direct travel and tourism contributed $93.5 billion to regional GDP, equivalent to 4.3 percent of the total economy and 64.1 percent of the target set in the GCC Tourism Strategy 2030.
The ministerial meeting in Manama follows a joint statement issued by GCC tourism authorities in April that emphasized stability and growth measures for the sector. Oman’s Minister of Heritage and Tourism Sayyid Ibrahim Said Al Busaidi, who led his country’s delegation, highlighted the need for clear timelines and measurable targets to turn cooperative ideas into tangible outcomes. The ministers reaffirmed their shared commitment to building a competitive and sustainable tourism industry that draws on the complementary strengths of each member state.
Plans for a unified GCC tourist visa known as the Grand Tours have advanced in parallel with these initiatives and could launch later in 2026 according to earlier statements from several member states. The bloc has steadily expanded collaboration on tourism since the pandemic, when coordinated recovery efforts first gained momentum. Thursday’s outcomes will now be forwarded to higher GCC bodies for final endorsement and implementation tracking.
