The Tourism Industry in Arab Spring: Effects and Perspectives (2017 KIEP Visiting Fellowship Program)
41 Pages Posted: 20 May 2018
Date Written: December 27, 2017
Abstract
The disturbance of Arabic countries especially in the MENA region called the "Arab Spring" has had a direct impact on the tourism industry of the Arab region. Volatile events, instabilities, political turmoil and extremism present the tourism industry with significant challenges. But in any event, future developments will depend in any case on the security situation in the country, as tourism is certainly a sector with many advantages in terms of foreign investment and foreign exchange. At the same time, it is a very sensitive sector. The slightest social upheaval, the smallest popular movement, these all have incalculable effects on the sector. Tunisia is an excellent example of what can happen to the tourism industry in such cases. This paper explores first the effects that the Arab Spring has had on tourism industry performance. We aim to identify the influence that events of the Arab Spring had on tourism in Middle Eastern and North African States, namely by examining the cases of other countries such as Egypt and Tunisia in comparison with Morocco and the United Arab Emirates.
Finally, the study examines the policies and strategies adopted by Tunisian governments in order to mitigate the crisis in the evolving tourism sector, and to develop recommendations on how the tourism industry can recover from the Jasmine Revolution.
Keywords: tourism industry, the Arab spring
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