Airline executives and hospitality executives said Monday that they expect Chinese inbound tourism to the Middle East to continue to boom following the lifting of visa restrictions¹ by several Arab states.

 

航空公司高管与酒店主管周一表示，因几个阿拉伯国家对中国取消签证限制，他们预计中国游客到中东旅游将会持续增长。

 

They made the remarks at the 24th edition of the Arabian Travel Market (ATM) fair and exhibition.

 

Briefing the media at a press conference, Qatar Airways² CEO Akbar Al-Baker praised the visa-on-arrival scheme for Chinese travelers the Gulf³ Arab states implemented⁴ in September last year.

 

"The removal of pre-visa requirements has triggered an increase of Chinese travelers to Qatar and this is only the beginning," said Al-Baker. Qatar Airways flies to six cities in China.

 

Elie Milky⁵, vice⁶ president for business development in the Middle East at American-Belgian hotel brand Carlson Rezidor told Xinhua he was also upbeat about Chinese travelers to the Gulf Arab region.

 

"We run in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) nine hotels and we will open another 14 resorts by 2019. This is mainly because of the fast growing number of guests from Asia, China in particular and all of our hotels in the Middle East employ Mandarin-speaking staff."

 

Earlier in the day, Dubai Tourism, the biggest government-controlled hospitality group in the UAE said the emirate saw 4.57 million travellers in the first three months of this year, an 11 per cent increase compared to the same period in 2016.

 

"Among Dubai's top 20 source markets for inbound tourism, China continued to top the growth trajectory⁷ charts with unparalleled 64 percent increase over the first quarter in 2016, delivering 230,000 tourists," Dubai Tourism said.

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