Tourism's market shares have massively grown in the last few years. People are more into to the world exploration and leisure traveling. The new trends and patterns in tourism are mainly in entertainment and shopping. Tourism became the most profitable market trend after oil industry. The growth of tourism in the last century can arguably be viewed as one of the most groundbreaking economic and social phenomena, increasing the number of tourists from 25 million to 808 million in the last 50 years (Dixit, Belwal & Singh, n.d.). Consequently, the tourism sector has become one of the largest industries in the contemporary economy, impacting many various adjacent areas in the national markets, making this a crucial activity.
Tourism has proven its success throughout the world and GCC. However, Kuwait is not fully utilizing its recourses to develop its tourism industry. The current situation of tourism in Kuwait is an ultimate old-fashioned tourism. There are many natural resources to be used in coastal line and islands to create a tourism center. It is a promising industry because customer segmentation is youth and adults. Targeted customer profile includes tourists and local and foreign citizens of Kuwait. This means that even in non-tourism seasons, Kuwait can still benefit from the tourism center. New market and industry trends, natural and manpower resources, and new employment opportunities are driving wheels behind the reasons Kuwait should invest in tourism.
There are many new marketing trends heading towards tourism industry. One of these trends is the short term marketing such as Snap Chat, a popular video messaging application. Snap chat is commonly known as a tool for fun once-or-twice marketing experiments. However, it is a platform providing a lot of sales and generating potential. Its importance is basically because the limited access to the video makes it more desirable, which in this case great to deliver integrated destination campaigns. Furthermore, irresistible, and exclusive offers shall be used to attract and persuade the targeted customers.
Natural and manpower resources in Kuwait makes it the ultimately fertilized soil for tourism. The international awareness of the country itself has risen significantly after the Gulf War but nonetheless, foreigners as well as home population seems to be unimpressed by its tourist offerings (Alhemoud & Armstrong, 1996). It has Ikarus marks and history driven monuments all around Failaka Island. Kuwait could utilize the historical landscape of Failaka in many ways. For example, an Ikarus driven hotel could be built there along with a theme-park. Cruises could make its path from Kuwait bay until Failaka. Another resource is the manpower; many Kuwaitis have the creativity and the ability to endorse Kuwait's tourism. It's important to invest in the national workforce rather than using an outsourced manpower. This is mainly because national labor has faith in the development in itself. It also sees beyond the future of its nation.
Once Kuwait is globally known for its tourism and hospitality. It would naturally create a lot of employment opportunities. Many of leading industries would invest in Kuwait. As tourism will create an opportunity to transfer Kuwait into a business harbor in the Gulf. The unemployment rate will undoubtedly decrease. It will also create a new raw source of income to Kuwait other than the scarce source of Oil industry.
The World Travel and Tourism Council (2015) reveals that in 2014, tourism had generated about KWD 840, which makes up an about 1.5% of the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP). The Council further states that there is a possible rise by 4.4% in this sector if the government commits to promoting this area.
Figure 1: GDP from Travel and Tourism (World Travel and Tourism Council, 2015)
Based on the information provided by the Council, Kuwait needs to embrace tourism and encourage more investors to venture into this industry. It is an economic necessity because there is a prediction that this would lead to the creation of more than 30,000 employment opportunities for its residents in a decade alone (Arab Times Online, 2016). The expected invested capacity that would trade annually about KD 700 million. These benefits are significant enough to impact the state budget in that; it would experience a reduction of the deficit in case unforeseen incidences such as oil drops happen.
It is a crucial step for Kuwait to improve its tourism sector if it intends to match up to its neighbors who had resorted to this action some years in advance. The difference between this state and its neighbors arose around the 1990s when the other nations in the GCC region decided to diversify their plans and improve their economic output instead of relying on the traditional oil trading culture. There was a growing need for a non-oil industry that would still cater to the economic requirements of the people (Javendanfar, 2005).
Countries such as Bahrain improved their tourism and finance sectors, whereas Qatar gave more emphasis to telecommunication and transport, although it also encouraged its tourism industry to higher targets. The same occurred in UAE and Oman, of which the latter had a Vision 2020 economic framework that would expand most industries including tourism and free trade among others. Considering these factors and the continuous improvements realized from the neighboring nations, Kuwait had to alter its planning and also adopt diversification to match them.
Transforming this industry into one that could attract even foreigners is a difficult task because the sector has been considered among the least attractive in the world. This assessment has was upheld after the nation was ranked 101 out 140 countries, by the Arabian Business, in terms of the travel and tourism. This position is the worst in the GCC region, while the highest ranked was Dubai, as expected, which was at number 28 on the same list. For some experts, the rank was to be lower because of the difficulty experienced when one wants a visa to the place. The process of successful visa application has been described as “practically impossible” (Mark, 2013).
Kuwait has a high chance of transforming its tourism sector because there are events in the region which can act as a facilitator in the reform process. In recent times, the nation has experienced higher hotel bookings, particularly in August, which is usually among the slowest months in terms of tourism returns. The increase in revenue during this time could be attributed to Eid al-Fitr celebrations, which triggered an increase in the demand for hotels and other travel-related facilities. Occupancy in hotels rose by about 37% while the room rates increased by more than 23.3% (Visit Kuwait, 2015). Despite these periodic raises in tourism activities, the industry remains underdeveloped in Kuwait, as such, there is a need for the Tourism Council to formulate some strategies that would lead to greater growth.
Our brief analysis has shown that the tourism sector is one of the biggest and most profitable global industry sectors. As such, its development should be taken with all seriousness and with regards to the potential profitability. Additionally, we must not forget the impact that tourism has on practically all the other sectors of the national economy. For the country like Kuwait, extremely rich in natural resources, development of tourism has not been a priority because national income has been steady and the purchasing power of people has been growing. But in recent years, there were many talks about diversification of the national economy, and development of tourism seems like an ideal opportunity that would, in turn, increase the opportunities for other industry sectors, such as food industry, real- estate, shopping, etc.
Kuwait also has the means to develop its tourism industry, because it has the historical legacy that provides it with excellent opportunities to establish tourist attractions, such as the Failaka Island. Additionally, it has enough manpower to support the development of infrastructure, adequate capital, since the country is prolifically financed from its oil- related activities, and would experience strong support for the activities of the local people. This would also create a substantial number of new job opportunities, and start developing the country`s economy into a more holistic entity, not solely dependent on energy exports. The mere location of Kuwait in the Middle East is also promising because the region has been buzzing with tourism activities as of late. It is also one of the most important transportation hubs in the world, connecting Asia with Europe and America on the shortest route. Thus, we can conclude that Kuwait has all factors in favor of developing an active tourism sectors, all that is currently lacking is the political will of its leaders.
References
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Arab Times Online. (2016). Improving Tourism in Kuwait to Offer 30,000 Jobs in 10 Years. Retrieved from http://www.arabtimesonline.com/news/improving-tourism-in-kuwait-to- offer-30000-jobs-in-10-yrs/
Dixit, M, Belwal, R. & Singh, G. (n.d). Online Tourism and Travel- Analyzing Trends from Marketing Perspective. Retrieved February 23, 2016 from http://www.academia.edu/567058/ONLINE_TOURISM_AND_TRAVEL- ANALYSING_TRENDS_FROM_MARKETING_PERSPECTIVE
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Tussyidah, I.P. (2015). Personal Technology and Tourism Experience. Washington State University- School of Hospitality Business Management. Retrieved from http://www.tussyadiah.com/ISCONTOUR15%20- %20Personal%20Technology%20and%20Tourism%20Experiences%20-%20Final.pdf
Visit Kuwait. Kuwait Tourism Sector Shows Good Improvement. Retrieved from http://www.visit-kuwait.com/901-Kuwait-Tourism-sector-shows-good-improvement.html
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