Gulf tourism kept expanding through 2025, with GCC countries welcoming approximately 75.7 million tourists and the sector contributing an estimated $254.7 billion to regional economies, according to figures released by the GCC Statistical Center.
For a region that has poured resources into positioning itself as a global travel and business hub, the numbers offer a concrete measure of how that bet is paying off. Inbound visitor spending reached approximately $131.9 billion in 2025, underscoring tourism's growing weight in the Gulf's non-oil economy.
Growth outpacing the global average
Tourism's economic contribution across the GCC grew at an average annual rate of 7.3 percent between 2019 and 2025, ahead of the 6.7 percent global tourism growth rate over the same period. That gap suggests the region has been gaining ground relative to the rest of the world even as international travel patterns shifted through the period.
Despite that outperformance, the GCC's overall share of global tourism remains modest in absolute terms. The region accounted for approximately 5 percent of international tourist movements in 2025 and 6.9 percent of global tourism receipts, figures that point to room for further growth even as the sector expands.
Strategy implementation nears three-quarters
The data also shed light on progress against the Gulf Tourism Strategy, the regional framework guiding coordinated tourism development across member states. The GCC has achieved an average implementation rate of approximately 73.8 percent of that strategy through 2025, a benchmark that gives policymakers a sense of how much of the planned agenda has been put into practice versus what remains outstanding.
Statisticians meet in Muscat
The figures were discussed at the eighth Regional Workshop on Innovation in Tourism Statistics, held in Muscat. The two-day event brought together approximately 30 specialists from across GCC member states who are involved in producing tourism statistics, part of an ongoing effort to standardize and refine how the region measures and reports on its tourism sector.
Intisar Abdullah Al Wahaibi and the GCC Statistical Center were named in connection with the release of the figures, reflecting the institutional work behind compiling data that spans multiple countries with different tourism markets, visitor profiles, and reporting systems.
Why it matters for the UAE and the wider Gulf
For residents and businesses across the UAE and the broader GCC, these figures translate into a clearer picture of how tourism is performing as a pillar of economic diversification. The sector's contribution of $254.7 billion touches everything from hospitality and retail to transport and events, industries that employ large numbers of people across the region.
The comparison with global growth rates also matters strategically. A 7.3 percent annual growth rate against a 6.7 percent global average is not a dramatic gap, but sustained over several years it signals that Gulf destinations are capturing a growing share of global travel demand, even as their overall share of worldwide tourist arrivals and receipts remains in the single digits.