Kuwait- stability key ingredient for tourism development- Arab, Spanish officials
Date
1/22/2016 4:18:58 AM
(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) MADRID Jan 22 (KUNA) -- Security and stability are key ingredients for tourism development worldwide an Arab Spanish Ministerial Round Table on Tourism Development Policies and Strategies in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region said late Thursday.Held as part of the International Tourism Trade Fair (FITUR) which saw the participation of 164 countries the round table focused on the future of tourism in MENA and how to tackle the various conflicts as well as an unclear economic future plaguing the region.In the opening of the roundtable Spanish Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Ignacio Ybanez Rubio said that like MENA the Mediterranean region had been under a lot of security pressure recently stressing that it was important to cooperate with various regional organizations to address the matter.Issues such as migration unemployment and the current dire state of the economy in the region required swift actions and solutions to bring tourism development to the forefront of the agendas of countries in the Mediterranean said Rubio.On his part Secretary General of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) Dr. Taleb D. Rifai said that tourism in the Middle East had faced many security challenges throughout the years; however the region always managed to revive its tourism industry despite the fact.Tourism in the Middle East had witness a three percent growth in 2015 said Dr. Rifai. He noted that terrorism had indeed became a challenge to the development of tourism around the globe but stressed that cooperation within the security domain amongst all nations will help to defeat terror.Arab officials from Kuwait the UAE Lebanon Palestine Egypt Jordan Morocco and Algeria shared similar views regarding the importance of countering terrorism as a tool to develop tourism in the MENA region saying that this was an international obligation.The roundtable is organized by Casa Arabe (Arab House) and the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO). (end) hnd.gta
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