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United Arab Emirates

A new vision of the Middle East.

Experts affirm that the 2009 will be a rough year for the tourist industry. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) forecasts that the entire industry will lose $2.5 billion approximately. All regions except the US are expected to report larger losses in 2009 than in 2008. The Middle East is expected to have losses of $200 million; nevertheless, many studies suggest the opposite. The Middle East tourist industry is expected to grow, as it is a newly born touristic region and it is developing innovative out of the way attractions. For example, Oman and the Arab Emirates are developing a very successful medical tourism.

Health tourism can be described as a healthy holiday in which vacationers travel abroad to get superior medical and cosmetic care. Medical tourists can be classified in two main groups. Firstly, many tourists just wish to combine leisure and relaxation, which will provide them a rejuvenating experience in beautiful and exotic places. Secondly, there is a group of medical tourists who take these vacations for their health problems, as they can get high quality medical treatments at very low costs compared with their own origin country. Some of the medical treatments are transplants, kidney dialysis cancer treatments and the like. For the second group of tourists, their health care is their primary concern and the holiday aspect is a secondary one. Two Middle East countries which are developing this kind of tourism successfully are Oman and the Arab Emirates, which are developing first class facilities with highly prepared medical specialist.

Oman, which had been isolated until 1970, has now opened to the world with tourism as one of the country’s major components. Even though Oman is currently at midway phase of development, there are a great number of projects to build and renovate the country’s infrastructure. Oman is looking for a major expansion in both facilities and tourist numbers, as its oil and gas reserves are less than its neighbor countries. Oman has everything any country needs to become successful and popular in the tourist industry. The country is plenty with natural attractions, historic sites, wildlife and ecological features. Besides, the Omani hotel industry has the strongest growth in the region. The present chief project in Oman is the Blue City, which will house 16 hotels located just a 45-minute drive north of Muscat. The hotels are just a small part of a billionaire project which will take 15 years to complete.

The Arab Emirates, as well as Oman, also offers a great quality health care; in fact. The Emirates are much better developed than Oman. The global financial crisis is also affecting the Middle East, yet it seems that it les severe with this regions. In fact the region expects to welcome around 10 million of tourists by the 2010. Manly Dubai and Abu Dubai are the regions which are bringing prosperity to the country. The region is developing appropriate infrastructure to become a prime destination for health and wellness tourism. What is more, the number of spas hotels and resorts is increasing rapidly. A major development for medical and health tourism is the Dubai Health care City which will be finished in 2010. The city will include high quality hospitals, medical teaching institutes, villas, rehabilitations centers as well as 5-stars hotels surrounding an artificial lake.

The financial collapse has attempted to destroy everything around, yet the Middle East countries have been great opponents. These countries have managed to exploit their natural, cultural and historical richness in difficult times for the world economy by fostering alternative ways of tourism. Health tourism is now become a fashionable way of vacations and the Middle East have greatly improve this aspect of tourism keeping up their influx of visitors and their economy.