GULF TOURISTS Need Cultural Curiosity

When tourists from the Gulf countries go on holiday, they focus heavily on shopping, leisure, beaches, and the countryside – things their either do a lot of at home or have never done due to the extreme climate they live in normally. As a general rule, they have no sense of cultural curiosity to find out more about the history or culture of the places they visit.

With high living standards, Gulf tourists choose 5* hotels across the world when on holiday. As a tourist demographic, they are ideal for many destinations, due to being low-key, law abiding and high spenders.

They rarely see the opportunities for self-enrichment that international travel offers. They would not consider a visit to a museum or a historical building. And even fewer take a guided tour of any kind. This therefore limits their broader knowledge of foreign cultures.

So, how are these Gulf countries going to move away from oil revenues and attract naturally cultural tourists from all over the world, if they can only offer shopping malls. Many of the Gulf nations aim to turn themselves into vibrant, knowledge-based economies like France or Singapore. Surely to succeed they too need to be culturally enriched too.