Tourism as a driver for jobs and growth in the Middle East and North Africa

Even in periods marked by uncertainty, conflict, and economic shocks, people continue to travel across the Middle East and North Africa. Businesses adapt, communities continue to welcome guests, and tourism demand remains remarkably resilient. That resilience says something important about this region and about the enduring appeal of its people, culture, and destinations. In recent years, this resilience has delivered tangible results. North Africa has been among the strongest tourism performers globally, with Morocco welcoming 20 million visitors and Egypt 19 million in 2025, and international arrivals across the region have recovered beyond pre-pandemic levels. Yet one of the most important parts of this story often receives less attention: much of this demand comes from closer to home. When international travel slowed, domestic, diaspora, and regional travelers helped sustain businesses, preserve livelihoods, and keep destinations active. In Saudi Arabia, domestic trips rose to 93 million in 2025, already surpassing the Vision 2030 target of 80 million even as international arrivals dipped slightly, and grew a further 16 percent in the first quarter of 2026, generating US$ 9.2 billion in spending despite regional volatility. In Morocco, residents accounted for 28 percent of hotel nights, while Moroccans living abroad made up around half of all arrivals. In Egypt, domestic tourists were expected to spend close to US$ 1 billion in 2025, more than a third of total tourism spending, and Saudi visitors alone accounted for half of all Arab arrivals. Even in countries experiencing conflict or heightened uncertainty, local and regional travelers helped keep tourism economies moving. In Syria, visitor arrivals increased by more than 80 percent in 2025, helping reactivate local businesses and signaling renewed confidence in the country. Tourism is already contributing significantly to growth and employment across the region, yet it is still operating below what it could achieve. Whenever I speak with government counterparts, investors, and entrepreneurs, what I hear is not a lack of ambition but a desire to overcome the barriers that prevent investment and entrepreneurship from flourishing. From historic and religious cities and heritage sites to coastlines, deserts, and mountains, the region offers experiences that few places can match. Much of that wealth remains underutilized, concentrated in a limited number of sites, and generates less local economic value than it could. Most importantly, the benefits of tourism are not reaching enough people. Tourism supports around 12 million jobs across the Middle East and North Africa and is one of the few sectors capable of creating employment across a wide range of skill levels. Every direct tourism job supports roughly two additional jobs across food production, transport, retail, cultural industries, and other local services. For women, young people, and communities in lagging regions, tourism can provide one of the most accessible pathways into formal employment. Achieving this requires a different way of thinking about destinations. Tourism's value lies in the economic activity it generates across local value chains, and when destinations are planned and managed as economic ecosystems, they create livelihoods that extend far beyond the sector itself. Infrastructure, skills, local supply chains, access to finance, digital services, and destination management must work together. The destinations that succeed are those that build strong connections between tourism and the wider local economy. For tourism to deliver on its promise, more people and businesses need to be able to participate in its growth. Many of the enterprises that generate the greatest impact locally are small and medium sized. They create local jobs and keep tourism spending within communities. Yet a small tourism entrepreneur may struggle to secure land or property rights, navigate multiple licensing requirements, obtain permits across different agencies, or access financing. These challenges slow investment, limit growth, and prevent many small businesses from creating the jobs they could otherwise support. Successful tourism destinations around the world share one lesson: neither the public sector nor the private sector can deliver transformation on its own. Governments provide infrastructure, policy frameworks, and stewardship of cultural and natural assets that make tourism growth possible. Private investors bring capital, innovation, and expertise. The greatest opportunities emerge when public and private actors work together to develop destinations, strengthen value chains, and unlock investment opportunities that neither could achieve alone. Development institutions also have an important role to play. At the World Bank Group, tourism is recognized as one of our five priority job-creating sectors, reflecting its unique ability to generate employment across a wide range of skills, places, and value chains. We see tourism as a powerful platform for jobs and inclusive growth, and we continue to work with countries to create the conditions for investment, strengthen enabling environments, and mobilize public and private financing. With World Tourism Day this week, I encourage countries across the region to focus on three priorities. First, treat tourism destinations as integrated economic systems, ensuring that investments strengthen linkages across the entire value chain and create more local jobs and business opportunities. Second, remove regulatory bottlenecks and expand access to finance so that smaller businesses can play a larger role in the sector's growth. Third, use public resources strategically to mobilize private capital investment, help develop new market segments, and unlock growth in destinations and regions with strong but underutilized potential. Countries across the Middle East and North Africa have already demonstrated what is possible. The next chapter is about building on that success and ensuring that tourism creates more jobs in more communities, supports entrepreneurs and small enterprises, and reaches people across the region.