The Arab Tourism Organization (ATO) has signed a strategic partnership agreement with the International Strategic Management (ISM) company, headquartered in Detroit, Michigan.
The signing took place on Wednesday in the presence of the president of the ATO, Dr. Bandar bin Fahd Al Fahid, and the CEO of the company, Dr. Faris Alami, at the ATO main headquarters in Jeddah.
The agreement comes as an extension of the ATO’s efforts to develop and enhance the tourism industry in the Arab world and to strengthen competitiveness in the tourism and travel sector.
The partnership aims to achieve growth and innovation within the tourism sector in Arab countries.
ISM, leveraging its accumulated expertise and specialized experts in the field, will collaborate with the ATO to achieve its goals and strategies, aligning them with the Arab League's Sustainable Development Plan 2030.
The ATO emphasized the importance of this partnership as it represents a real opportunity to enhance the role of Arab countries in developing their tourist destinations to achieve sustainable development.
According to the organization, it is expected that the total contribution of the travel and tourism sector to worldwide gross domestic product (GDP) will reach 15%, whereas the total contribution of the travel and tourism sector to the gross domestic product worldwide before 2019 did not exceed 10%.
The ATO further projected that revenues from travel and tourism will increase at an annual growth rate of 3.4% until 2027, reaching over a trillion dollars in revenue.
It also expected that the global tourism sector's job market will reach 430 million jobs by 2030, representing an increase of over 30% compared to 2023.
