The UAE has held on to 22nd place among 119 economies in the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Travel and Tourism Development Index (TTDI) 2026, even as its score edged higher, with the wider Gulf region posting some of the strongest tourism-competitiveness gains in the world.
The UAE scored 4.56 out of 7 in the latest edition, up 0.5 per cent on 2024 and 4.6 per cent higher than in 2019, despite dropping three places in the overall rankings – a shift the WEF attributes to other economies improving faster rather than any UAE decline. The country remains the highest-ranked Arab economy in the index, just ahead of Indonesia, which shares an identical score.
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Elsewhere in the GCC, Saudi Arabia climbed three places to 29th with a score of 4.45, up 3.4 per cent year-on-year and a striking 7.8 per cent since 2019 – the second-largest seven-year improvement of any economy in the index.
Qatar jumped 10 places to 47th, posting a 6 per cent annual gain, among the fastest anywhere in the world this year.
Bahrain fell two places to 55th (score 4.11, up 2.4 per cent), while Oman rose two places to 62nd (3.98, up 2.9 per cent) and Kuwait slipped two places to 88th (3.53, up 1.8 per cent).
Regionally, the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) posted an average score of 3.98, up 2.5 per cent since 2024 – the second-fastest rate of improvement of any region after Asia-Pacific (up 3.6 per cent). Within that grouping, the Middle East subregion, which includes the UAE and its Gulf peers, averaged a stronger 4.10, with particular strength in air transport infrastructure and ICT readiness, the WEF said.
Conflict disrupts
The rankings landed against a turbulent backdrop for regional aviation due to the US-Israel-Iran war.
The WEF’s report notes that escalating conflict in the Middle East from late February 2026 triggered airspace closures and security restrictions that disrupted “a critical aviation corridor linking Europe, Asia, Australia and Africa,” with knock-on effects on flight times, fuel costs, airfares and traveller confidence.
By April 2026, traffic carried by Middle Eastern carriers, measured in revenue passenger kilometres, had contracted by 46.6 per cent year-on-year, dragging global air traffic down 3.4 per cent – the first such contraction since the post-pandemic recovery began.
International arrivals still grew 2 per cent globally in the first quarter of 2026, the WEF said, but the Middle East was the only region to register a decline, underlining the sector’s exposure to geopolitical shocks even as broader travel demand keeps setting records.
Saudi workforce
The report singles out Saudi Arabia’s tourism workforce strategy as one of its case studies in building sector resilience. The Kingdom recorded the second-largest global improvement in the Human Resources and Labour Market pillar since 2019, which the WEF links to its Vision 2030 push.
Tourism employment reached nearly 1.03 million jobs in 2025, with Saudi women accounting for about 47 per cent of the tourism workforce, up sharply from 5 per cent in 2018, through scholarship, certification and apprenticeship programmes run by the Ministry of Tourism.
Global
Globally, Japan overtook the US to claim the top spot in the 2026 index with a score of 5.27, followed by the US (5.23) and Spain (5.22). The WEF credited Japan’s rise to gains in demand sustainability and openness to travel rather than pure visitor appeal, pointing to it as a model for converting tourism activity into lasting value.
The index arrives as global travel and tourism activity continues to break records. International tourist arrivals hit 1.52 billion in 2025, up 5 per cent on 2024 and 4.4 per cent above pre-pandemic levels, according to UN Tourism data cited in the report. The sector’s total economic contribution reached $11.6 trillion – nearly 10 per cent of global GDP — while supporting 366 million jobs worldwide, or roughly one in every nine jobs globally.
The WEF said 92 per cent of the 119 economies assessed improved their TTDI score between the 2024 and 2026 editions, but warned that with disruption now “the norm” rather than the exception, destinations that manage growth, diversify demand and protect connectivity – rather than simply chase visitor numbers – will be the ones that stay competitive.
Source: Khaleej Times