Georgia has emerged as one of the most compelling tourism growth stories in the wider European region. Between 2021 and 2025, annual international tourist visits surged from approximately 1.6 million to 5.5 million, while tourism revenues climbed to $4.7 billion. The country surpassed its pre-pandemic tourism record in 2024 and continued expanding in 2025, demonstrating the resilience of an industry that is increasingly central to Georgia’s economic development.

Yet this is more than a story of recovery. For successive Georgian governments, tourism has become a strategic instrument for attracting foreign investment, expanding international connectivity and strengthening the country’s position between Europe and Asia. The ambition is increasingly clear: to transform Georgia from an emerging regional destination into a globally competitive, year-round tourism economy.

That ambition is unfolding against an increasingly complicated political backdrop. Georgia’s tourism industry has continued to grow despite domestic protests, deteriorating relations with the European Union and uncertainty surrounding the country’s European integration process. While political tensions intensified throughout 2024 and 2025, international arrivals and tourism revenues continued to reach new highs.

The apparent contradiction reveals an important feature of Georgia’s tourism economy: its ability to attract visitors from multiple geopolitical and economic markets simultaneously. Russia, Türkiye and neighbouring countries remain important sources of demand, while Israel, the Gulf states, China and India are contributing to market diversification.

However, strong visitor numbers should not be mistaken for immunity from political risk. Long-term tourism investment depends on regulatory predictability, international confidence, reliable air connectivity and a stable operating environment. Georgia’s next challenge will be to preserve these foundations while navigating an increasingly fragmented geopolitical landscape.

The government’s infrastructure ambitions demonstrate the scale of its commitment. Plans for a new international airport at Vaziani, near Tbilisi, with a proposed annual capacity of approximately 19 million passengers, represent a potential transformation of the country’s international accessibility. Combined with airport expansion, private hotel investment, improved regional connectivity and the development of destinations beyond Tbilisi and Batumi, these projects could reshape Georgia’s tourism geography.

Yet infrastructure alone will not determine the country’s competitiveness. Georgia must also move beyond a tourism model heavily dependent on visitor volume and relatively price-sensitive regional markets. Wine tourism, gastronomy, mountain resorts, wellness, cultural heritage and international business events offer opportunities to increase spending per visitor while distributing economic benefits more widely across the country.

The fundamental strategic question is no longer simply how many tourists Georgia can attract, but how much sustainable economic value each visitor can generate.

Looking towards 2035, Georgia faces several possible development paths rather than a predetermined trajectory. Under a scenario of sustained investment, continued market diversification and moderate annual tourism growth, the country could welcome approximately 8 million international tourist visits and generate close to $8 billion in annual tourism revenues.

A more ambitious scenario, supported by stronger international connectivity, higher-value tourism products and improved investor confidence, could bring visitor numbers towards 10 million and revenues close to $10 billion.

These figures are scenario estimates rather than official forecasts. Their realisation would depend on infrastructure delivery, regional security, international market conditions and Georgia’s ability to manage the environmental pressures associated with rapid tourism expansion. The country’s mountains, coastal destinations and protected landscapes are central to its competitive identity, but their long-term value depends on responsible development, effective destination management and meaningful participation by local communities.

Georgia’s tourism future will ultimately be determined by the relationship between political stability, investment confidence and economic diversification. The achievements of the past five years demonstrate that the country possesses the natural assets, entrepreneurial capacity and international appeal required to compete well beyond its immediate region.

The next decade presents a different challenge: translating this momentum into a tourism economy that is less dependent on individual source markets, more resilient to geopolitical disruption and capable of generating greater value for its citizens.

For policymakers and investors, the distinction matters. Building larger airports and attracting more visitors may expand the industry, but strengthening institutions, protecting natural resources and creating a predictable investment environment will shape the durability of that expansion.

Georgia has already demonstrated that tourism can grow through political uncertainty. The question for 2035 is whether the country can turn that growth into a sustainable foundation for long-term economic development

L’article Georgia bets on $10 billion tourism future despite geopolitical uncertainty est apparu en premier sur Travel Tomorrow.

Tourism is no longer simply an industry defined by arrivals, hotel nights and visitor spending. It has become a strategic instrument for economic development, investment, diplomacy, urban transformation and international cooperation.

This is the space in which the Global Tourism Forum (GTF) is positioning itself: as a high-level meeting point where governments, investors and global business leaders come together to shape the future of tourism.

With its international operations centred in Dubai and Brussels, the Global Tourism Forum has evolved into a business-led organisation focused on public-private collaboration, tourism investment, destination development and policy dialogue.

Its purpose is not to replicate the traditional conference model. Instead, GTF aims to create an environment in which decisions can be accelerated, partnerships can be formed and destinations can connect directly with the capital, expertise and international networks required for growth.

A broader definition of tourism

The Forum’s agenda reflects the changing nature of the global tourism economy.

Aviation, hospitality and destination promotion remain fundamental, but today’s discussions increasingly extend to infrastructure, urban mobility, digital transformation, cybersecurity, real estate, sustainability, investment finance and international cooperation.

Tourism is connected to almost every major economic sector, and the Global Tourism Forum is designed around that reality.

This approach can be seen in the Forum’s growing international calendar.

In Brussels, the Global Tourism Forum Annual Meeting brings together ministers, government representatives, investors, chief executives, international institutions and influential figures from across the global tourism economy.

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The 2026 Annual Meeting, taking place on 9–10 November in Brussels, will once again place the European capital at the centre of a global conversation on tourism competitiveness, investment and international cooperation.

Brussels provides a particularly relevant setting. As the political capital of Europe and home to major international institutions, it allows tourism to be discussed not only as an industry but also as an increasingly important economic and policy priority.

For destinations, the value lies in access to decision-makers and capital. For private-sector participants, the Forum provides direct engagement with governments and new markets. For policymakers, it offers an opportunity to understand how global investors and industry leaders are responding to a rapidly changing international environment.

From dialogue to investment

The Global Tourism Forum model also extends far beyond Europe.

In June 2026, the organisation convened the GTF Angola Investment Summit in Luanda, bringing together political leaders, international institutions, global hotel groups, investors and development partners.

The summit attracted approximately 1,500 participants and resulted in around 15 memoranda of understanding covering investment, development, international cooperation and training.

Angola demonstrated one of GTF’s central principles: destinations need more than international promotion.

They need investment pipelines, bankable projects, international visibility, access to developers and operators, and structured engagement with the global investment community.

For emerging destinations in particular, tourism can act as a catalyst for employment, infrastructure development, foreign direct investment and economic diversification, but only when political ambition is connected with capital and execution.

The Forum therefore places a strong emphasis on outcomes.

Its meetings are designed to connect ministers and destination leaders directly with investors, operators, developers and strategic partners, with the objective of converting dialogue into projects, partnerships and long-term relationships.

Relationships matter

Alongside its major summits, GTF also uses smaller leadership formats to deepen relationships and move discussions forward.

Its invitation-only Leaders Dinners, organised in international centres including Berlin, Cape Town and Dubai, bring together a select group of ministers, ambassadors, investors, developers and senior executives in an environment designed for direct and candid conversation.

These gatherings complement the larger Forum meetings by creating space for potential partnerships, investment opportunities and policy priorities to be discussed away from the formal conference stage.

The combination of international visibility and smaller, relationship-driven engagement has become an important part of the Global Tourism Forum model.

Measuring the future

The same philosophy is shaping GTF’s broader work in research and investment intelligence.

Through initiatives such as the World Tourism Investment Index, the organisation is developing frameworks that can help governments, investors and businesses better understand tourism competitiveness and investment potential.

The Index assesses 217 countries through 18 indicators across five categories, offering a global perspective on investment conditions and market readiness.

Looking ahead, the Global Tourism Forum’s ambition is clear: to strengthen its position as a bridge between destinations and global capital, between governments and business, and between tourism policy and real-world investment.

The tourism sector is entering a new era in which competitiveness will depend on far more than visitor numbers.

Infrastructure, technology, mobility, security, sustainability, financing and international partnerships will increasingly determine which destinations succeed.

The Global Tourism Forum intends to be where those conversations become decisions, and where those decisions become investment, growth and long-term value for destinations around the world.

L’article Global Tourism Forum: Where tourism meets diplomacy, investment and global leadership est apparu en premier sur Travel Tomorrow.

Artificial intelligence illustrates the contradiction. Travellers are increasingly comfortable allowing AI to recommend destinations, compare hotels, monitor prices and build itineraries. Yet Expedia’s 2026 research found that 66% of consumers would not trust an AI assistant to make a purchase or reservation on their behalf, while only 8% were comfortable giving it full booking authority. That suggests the immediate future of travel is not the autonomous robot travel agent once imagined. It is something subtler: an intelligent assistant permanently sitting beside the traveller, reducing 40 hotels to five, watching fares around the clock, comparing loyalty points with cash prices and rebuilding an itinerary when something goes wrong. AI may increasingly influence the decision. Humans, for now, still want the final click.

But technology is only half the disruption. The economics of travel are changing just as quickly. Inflation and cost-of-living pressures have not eliminated the desire to travel; they have made travellers more calculating about how they do it. Consumers increasingly adjust the length of a trip, the distance travelled, the hotel category and the number of paid activities before abandoning the holiday altogether. That makes flexibility part of the price itself. Free cancellation, transparent total costs, currency conversion, price alerts and simple modification policies will increasingly compete with the headline room rate. The winning travel company of 2030 may therefore not be the one advertising the cheapest price, but the one offering the lowest perceived risk.

There is one area, however, where consumers remain remarkably willing to spend: experiences. Between 2023 and 2025, McKinsey estimates the global experience market grew by 2.6%, compared with just 0.8% for discretionary physical goods, while travel experiences expanded by 4.4%. The generational divide makes the direction even clearer: 52% of Gen Z travellers say they are willing to spend extra on experiences, compared with 29% of Baby Boomers. This is quietly rewriting tourism economics. The traveller of 2030 may economise on the flight, compare ten hotels and wait for a better room rate, then willingly spend on gastronomy, wellness, sport, culture or an experience available nowhere else. Tourism is moving from selling things to selling moments worth remembering and, increasingly, worth sharing.

That leaves governments, destinations and tourism companies with a different race to win before 2030. More advertising will not be enough. They will need simpler booking, transparent pricing, credible sustainability claims, climate-resilient destinations and digital infrastructure that both humans and AI systems can understand. The global traveller is becoming simultaneously more sophisticated and more sceptical: digitally empowered, environmentally aware, financially cautious and still determined to experience the world.

The great tourism battle of the next decade will therefore not be fought over who can generate the most attention. It will be fought over who can turn attention into trust, and trust into a booking.

L’article The tourist of 2030 will travel more, but trust less est apparu en premier sur Travel Tomorrow.

Long overshadowed by its neighbours, the country is now building a tourism machine of its own. The numbers back it up: more than 42 million visitors in 2025, up over 11% year-on-year, with momentum carrying into 2026, including17.5 million arrivals in the first five months alone. The government’s Visit Malaysia 2026 campaign has set its sights higher still, targeting 47 million.

But the real story here isn’t the headline number. Kuala Lumpur is trying to turn tourism into something bigger: a magnet for foreign investment, a soft-power tool, and a strategic bridge linking ASEAN to China, India and the Gulf.

No single star, but a deep bench

Malaysia doesn’t have one marquee destination the way Thailand has its beaches or Bali has its brand, and that may be more of a strength than a weakness. Kuala Lumpur delivers shopping and business travel. Langkawi covers beach resorts. Penang trades on food and heritage. Sabah and Sarawak offer high-value nature and diving tourism. Add medical tourism, Muslim-friendly travel, weddings and golf, and the portfolio looks less like a gap and more like a hedge.

Economies over-reliant on a single market or traveller type are exposed to shocks. Malaysia is spreading its bets.

Beijing comes back online

China is driving the first wave of the resurgence. Roughly 4.7 million Chinese tourists visited Malaysia in 2025, a jump of about 25%. That pace held into the first quarter of 2026, with arrivals near 1.4 million.

That’s not an accident. Malaysia has eased visa friction while expanding air links in parallel. As of May 2026, the two countries were connected by roughly 744 weekly flights and nearly 149,000 seats. The logic is simple: visa access generates demand, but demand goes nowhere without airline capacity to match it. Malaysia is building access, connectivity and demand all at once.

India: the long game

If China defined the last decade of Asian outbound travel, India may define the next one. Malaysia drew about 1.5 million Indian visitors in 2025, up 14.6%, with more than 600,000 arriving in the first five months of 2026 alone.

Dubai wants this traveller. So do Thailand, Singapore, Saudi Arabia and much of Europe. Malaysia’s pitch: proximity, competitive pricing, widespread English, familiar food, and infrastructure built for families.

The Singapore effect and the ASEAN hinterland

Geography is the one advantage no marketing budget can replicate. Malaysia logged roughly 21.1 million visitors from Singapore in 2025, up nearly 12%, though much of that reflects same-day “excursionists” rather than overnight tourists, a distinction built into Malaysia’s own visitor methodology. Short-stay traffic still spends on food, shopping and transport, and it matters.

More broadly, ASEAN markets accounted for almost 72% of Malaysia’s inbound traffic in the first five months of 2026. Much like Europe has long leaned on intra-regional travel, Malaysia is cultivating its own version of a captive regional market.

Tourism as an economic backbone

International visitor spending hit roughly RM106.8 billion in 2024, with the sector’s total economic contribution reaching RM291.9 billion, about 15.1% of GDP. Add RM121.3 billion in domestic tourism spending in 2025, and a three-layer demand structure emerges: long-haul international, regional ASEAN, and domestic. That layering makes the sector more resilient to shocks in any single segment.

Have you explored this slice of nature in the heart of the city?

KL Forest Eco Park, Kuala Lumpur
8:00 AM – 4:30 PM
Adults: RM10 | Kids & Seniors: RM1#VisitMalaysia2026 #MalaysiaTrulyAsia #CutiCutiMalaysia #SurrealExperiences #KLForestEcoPark #KualaLumpur pic.twitter.com/SCJeaZ2Kq2

— Malaysia Truly Asia (@TourismMalaysia) February 13, 2025

The harder challenge now is value per visitor, not visitor count. Medical tourism is the clearest proof point. Roughly 1.85 million health-related visitors in 2025 generated about RM3.35 billion in revenue, turning hospital care into something closer to an export industry. The same economics apply to conferences, luxury travel, weddings and golf.

The capital has the raw ingredients: a major international airport, world-class hotels, strong dining and retail, and connections spanning Asia and the Middle East. What it still lacks is a clear identity. Bangkok became a lifestyle destination. Singapore became a premium urban hub. Dubai turned layovers into an economic model. Kuala Lumpur remains harder to define, a gap that’s also an opportunity if it can convert transit passengers into stopover tourists and win more conferences and premium hospitality business.

The Gulf’s double role

Malaysia is one of Asia’s easiest large destinations for Muslim travellers. Halal food is everywhere, prayer facilities are standard, hotels understand the market, and English is widely spoken. But the bigger prize may not be tourists at all. As Gulf capital moves aggressively into global hospitality and destination development, Malaysia is positioning itself as a target for that investment, not just for Gulf travellers themselves.

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The question after 2026

Once the campaign wraps, the real scorecard begins: Did visitors stay longer? Did average spending rise? Did foreign investment follow? Did destinations beyond Kuala Lumpur actually benefit? And did Malaysia manage to shift from competing on affordability to competing on value?

Thailand isn’t going anywhere. Singapore will keep pulling high-spending travellers. Bali will keep its brand. Vietnam is growing fast. But Malaysia has quietly assembled the assets to compete at the top tier: infrastructure, geography, a deep ASEAN catchment, strong access to China and India, cultural fit with the Muslim world, and a sizable domestic base to fall back on.

“Malaysia Truly Asia” was one of global tourism’s most recognisable slogans for years. The next test is harder: converting scale into spending, visitors into investment, and growth into lasting economic leverage. Pull that off, and Malaysia’s rise stops looking like a post-pandemic rebound and starts looking like a redrawn map of Southeast Asian tourism.

L’article Malaysia’s quiet bid to become Southeast Asia’s tourism power  est apparu en premier sur Travel Tomorrow.

In today’s attention economy, a world-class football club isn’t just a sporting institution. It’s one of the most powerful tourism marketing platforms a city can have, yet most policymakers still aren’t treating it that way.

The numbers don’t lie. VisitBritain found that 1.5 million international visitors attended a football match while touring the UK in 2019, contributing £1.4 billion to the visitor economy, up 84% since 2011. Football tourists spent an average of £909 per trip, 31% more than the typical international visitor, and stayed longer too.

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Manchester is the proof of concept. Every United or City match broadcast beams the city’s image to every continent, with zero additional marketing spend. Old Trafford alone attracted roughly 226,000 international visitors in 2019, generating an estimated £225 million in tourism revenue. Few conventional advertising campaigns can offer that kind of exposure.

Now scale that logic to Trabzon. Imagine a global icon like Mohamed Salah in a Trabzonspor shirt. With over 100 million followers across social platforms, Salah isn’t just a player; he’s a brand with its own gravitational pull. His arrival alone could put Trabzon on the radar for millions of fans across the Middle East, North Africa, Europe and Asia. Airlines could fill more seats. Hotels could fill more rooms. Restaurants could welcome more customers. And the city’s international profile could grow in ways that would be difficult for a tourism board to replicate on its own.

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For a destination already sitting on a stunning Black Sea coastline, with a rich history and a cuisine worth travelling for, football could be the missing catalyst, the thing that turns Trabzon from a seasonal regional draw into a year-round international destination.

The takeaway for policymakers is blunt. Stop budgeting football as a sporting line item. Start treating it as an investment in destination branding, economic development and international competitiveness. Cities are already competing hard for global attention. The ones that win will be the ones who grasp a simple truth: sometimes the most effective tourism campaign runs for 90 minutes, on a pitch.

L’article Why football could be one of the smartest tourism investments for cities est apparu en premier sur Travel Tomorrow.

While politicians will speak of peace agreements and security guarantees, businesses will ask a different question: who will build the peace economy?

The first people crossing Ukraine’s borders after a settlement are unlikely to be holidaymakers. They will be engineers, contractors, diplomats, development agencies, insurers, investors and members of the Ukrainian diaspora returning to assess homes, businesses and opportunities.

This means the country’s initial recovery will not resemble a traditional tourism rebound. Instead, it will be driven by a reconstruction mobility economy, where infrastructure projects and human movement reinforce one another. Hotels, serviced apartments, conference venues and transport hubs could become profitable long before beach resorts or leisure destinations recover.

According to estimates by the World Bank, the European Commission, the United Nations and the Ukrainian government, reconstruction needs have reached almost $600 billion. Transport alone accounts for more than $96 billion, while energy, housing and cultural infrastructure will require billions more.

This is about far more than replacing damaged buildings. It is an opportunity to redefine Ukraine’s transport network, economic geography and position as a European destination.

I met with @WorldBank Group President Ajay Banga to discuss continued assistance in assessing the damage inflicted on Ukraine and preparing the relevant reports.

I shared that Russia’s attacks are becoming increasingly brutal, which makes it vital to intensify efforts in pooling… pic.twitter.com/fmiJrK7w8S

— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) June 18, 2025

Contractors before tourists

Tourism will return, but only after fundamental conditions are restored. Airspace must reopen, insurance providers must regain confidence, transport links need repairing, contaminated land must be cleared and reliable energy supplies re-established.

Until then, contractors will arrive before tourists.

Hotels in Kyiv, Lviv and other western cities are likely to be filled by infrastructure specialists, international lenders, diplomatic delegations and executives competing for reconstruction contracts. As a result, demand may shift towards extended-stay accommodation, corporate housing and conference facilities rather than conventional leisure hotels.

Western Ukraine is expected to recover first. Regions such as Lviv, Zakarpattia and Ivano-Frankivsk have remained comparatively secure, maintain close links with the European Union and already possess functioning tourism infrastructure. Lviv could emerge as a centre for investment conferences, diplomatic meetings and cultural events linked to reconstruction.

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The Carpathian region presents another opportunity. Existing wellness resorts could evolve into centres for rehabilitation, combining healthcare, wellness and leisure. However, policymakers will need to balance investment with sustainable planning to avoid uncontrolled development, environmental degradation and rising housing costs.

Kyiv is likely to become the administrative heart of reconstruction, while Odesa could eventually regain its role as Ukraine’s maritime gateway, although the revival of ports, cruise tourism and coastal hospitality will depend on long-term security and mine clearance.

Transport will shape the recovery

Transport will be central to Ukraine’s recovery. During the war, rail corridors through Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Moldova became essential lifelines for people and goods. After peace, these routes could evolve into permanent economic corridors linking Ukraine more closely with the European Union.

Expanding European-gauge rail connections would improve trade and make cross-border travel faster and more attractive. Night trains, integrated ticketing systems and simplified border procedures could become the backbone of Ukraine’s early tourism recovery while commercial aviation remains limited.

Aviation, however, will not resume overnight. Airports require far more than political approval to reopen. Safety certification, air traffic management, insurance, energy resilience and security infrastructure will all have to be restored before airlines return. Lviv Airport may be among the first to reopen because of its proximity to the EU, while Kyiv’s Boryspil Airport would represent the greatest long-term economic prize, reconnecting Ukraine with European and global aviation networks.

Europe is Ukraine's strongest partner, top donor & key investor.

With €2.3 billion in agreements signed, set to unlock up to €10 billion in investments.

And a new European Flagship Fund for the Reconstruction of Ukraine, rebuilding businesses & homes. https://t.co/zkTbxPxdGj

— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) July 10, 2025

Rebuilding responsibly

Healthcare could also become an important pillar of Ukraine’s recovery. The country will need extensive rehabilitation services for veterans, injured civilians and those living with long-term physical and psychological trauma. While these facilities will initially serve a humanitarian purpose, they could later position Ukraine as a regional centre for rehabilitation, prosthetics, reconstructive medicine and wellness.

Another challenge will be managing international interest in places that have become symbols of the war. Bucha, Irpin, Mariupol and other devastated communities will inevitably attract visitors seeking to understand what happened.

Ukraine should resist the temptation to commercialise these locations as “war tourism”. Instead, they should be developed as places of remembrance, education and reflection, with local communities helping shape how their stories are told. Revenue generated from visitors should contribute to memorials, rehabilitation programmes and local recovery rather than purely commercial activities.

The economic race after peace

Investment opportunities will extend well beyond tourism. The first wave of tourism- and mobility-related investment alone could amount to tens of billions of euros, creating employment across construction, transport, hospitality, healthcare, technology and cultural restoration. Yet Ukraine’s greatest challenge may not be securing finance, but developing bankable projects, ensuring transparent procurement and creating investment structures that inspire confidence among international investors.

The shape of Ukraine’s recovery will ultimately depend on how peace unfolds. A fragile ceasefire may encourage investment in western Ukraine while keeping aviation and maritime transport restricted. A more durable settlement backed by credible security guarantees would allow airports to reopen, international hotel brands to enter the market and leisure tourism gradually to return.

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Even under the most optimistic scenario, recovery is unlikely to be evenly distributed. Western regions will naturally attract investment first because they present lower risks. Without careful public policy, this could widen the economic gap between western Ukraine and the communities in the east and south that have suffered the greatest destruction.

Ukraine’s reconstruction will reshape not only one country but the wider economic geography of Central and Eastern Europe. New railways, reopened airports, restored cultural landmarks and modern healthcare facilities will redefine mobility across the region.

Tourism will not simply benefit from this transformation; it will help drive it. Hotels will host engineers before holidaymakers. Trains will carry investors alongside returning families. Cultural restoration will strengthen both national identity and international appeal.

The companies and countries that succeed will be those that prepare before the peace agreement is signed, building partnerships, securing financing and developing projects that can move quickly once conditions allow.

When the war finally ends, the political negotiations may be be over. But the economic race to rebuild Ukraine will only just begin.

L’article How tourism and mobility could help rebuild Ukraine est apparu en premier sur Travel Tomorrow.

During his July visit to Washington, al-Zaidi placed investment at the centre of diplomacy, pursuing partnerships with major American energy and infrastructure companies and presenting Iraq not as a permanent theatre of crisis, but as a market capable of absorbing capital on a significant scale. Agreements announced around the visit were valued by Iraq’s oil minister at approximately $200bn. Such numbers should be treated as prospective commitments rather than completed investment, but the direction is unmistakable: al-Zaidi wants international capital to see Iraq differently.

The economic case for this shift is urgent. Oil accounted for an estimated 53% of Iraq’s real GDP, 88% of government revenue and 91% of merchandise exports in 2025, leaving the country acutely exposed to production restrictions, lower prices and regional disruption. The IMF estimates that oil revenues could continue to represent more than 90% of government income through 2030 without substantial reform, while Iraq’s non-oil growth declined from 13.8% in 2023 to about 2.5% in 2024.

Al-Zaidi therefore inherits not merely an economic challenge, but a question of national resilience. His strength is that he appears to understand investment diplomacy as an instrument of sovereignty: the broader Iraq’s partnerships, private sector and productive economy become, the less vulnerable Baghdad will be to fluctuations in one commodity or pressure from any single foreign power.

Tourism should become one of the defining pillars of this diversification. Iraq possesses six UNESCO World Heritage properties and an almost unparalleled concentration of civilisational, archaeological and religious assets: Babylon, ancient Ur, the citadel of Erbil, the southern marshlands, the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala, the historic memory of Baghdad and the mountain landscapes of the Kurdistan Region.

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Yet the country’s most widely available internationally comparable tourism data remain strikingly outdated. The World Bank records 892,000 international arrivals in 2013, while recorded international tourism receipts reached approximately $955mn in 2020. These imperfect figures reveal both a statistical weakness and an economic opportunity. Iraq is already receiving substantial religious and regional travel, but has not yet converted the full scale of that movement into an integrated visitor economy built around international hotels, destination management, cultural routes, retail, restaurants, entertainment, transportation and professional tourism services.

Aviation will determine whether this potential becomes an investable industry. Iraq’s National Development Plan states that its airports handled approximately 2.04mn passengers in 2022, compared with almost 3.97mn in 2018, illustrating both the damage caused by instability and the scope for recovery. Baghdad International Airport’s existing three terminals have a combined theoretical capacity of roughly 7.5mn passengers a year, while the redevelopment programme envisages a new terminal initially capable of handling 9mn passengers and later as many as 15mn.

For al-Zaidi, these should not be regarded simply as transport projects. Airports are economic platforms: they attract airlines, hotels, logistics providers, conference organisers, retailers and international investors. A coherent programme linking Baghdad, Basra, Najaf, Karbala, Mosul, Erbil and Sulaymaniyah with simplified visa procedures, modern airport services and stronger global airline partnerships could transform Iraq into a regional junction between the Gulf, Türkiye, the Levant and Central Asia.

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The test of al-Zaidi’s leadership will be whether his evident ambition can be translated into institutions that outlast political cycles: predictable regulation, transparent public-private partnerships, investment protection, credible procurement and consistent security. There are serious obstacles, and no responsible investor will ignore them. But frontier markets are rarely transformed by leaders who wait for perfect conditions; they are transformed by leaders who create confidence before it fully exists.

Al-Zaidi’s youth, commercial background and early emphasis on international economic engagement give him an unusual opportunity to become the architect of Iraq’s post-oil transition. If he treats tourism, aviation and travel-related infrastructure as national development policy rather than peripheral entertainment, Iraq could generate employment across every level of society, give new commercial life to its extraordinary heritage and reposition itself as one of the Middle East’s most consequential investment stories.

His task is not simply to govern a country rich in oil, but to reveal the far greater value of the Iraq that exists beyond it.

L’article Iraq’s new prime minister has an opportunity to make tourism a national priority  est apparu en premier sur Travel Tomorrow.

The Global Tourism Forum Angola Investment Summit did not merely promote Angola as another emerging destination. It attempted something more ambitious: to turn Angola’s tourism potential into an investment agenda, supported by policy dialogue, international partnerships, private-sector engagement and measurable commitments.

With more than 2,000 participants, the summit became one of Angola’s most significant tourism investment gatherings in recent years. It brought together government officials, international institutions, hospitality investors, sustainability partners, local tourism operators, business chambers and global decision-makers around one central question: how can Angola convert tourism potential into bankable investment?

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That distinction matters.

In global tourism, natural beauty is rarely enough. Many countries have coastlines, wildlife, cultural heritage and undeveloped land. What separates destinations that attract capital from those that remain permanently “promising” is the ability to convert those assets into bankable projects, credible partnerships and a clear policy framework.

Angola used the summit to make precisely that case.

Its achievement can be measured across three areas: visibility, credibility and execution.

First, visibility

Angola entered a crowded African tourism investment landscape where countries are competing for hotel groups, infrastructure capital, airline connectivity and destination branding. By hosting an international summit under the Global Tourism Forum platform and attracting more than 2,000 participants, Angola moved from being a country with latent tourism potential to one actively presenting itself to global investors at scale.

The setting mattered. Luanda was not used merely as a backdrop; it was positioned as the political and commercial gateway to Angola’s tourism future. From the welcome programme to the official sessions, the summit projected a message that Angola wants to be seen not only as a resource economy, but also as an Atlantic tourism and investment destination.

Second, credibility

One of the summit’s most important outcomes was the positioning of Angola’s tourism sector within a stronger institutional framework. The presentation of UN Tourism’s Tourism Doing Business – Investing in Angola investment guidelines gave the event a policy dimension that extended beyond speeches and panel discussions. The focus was not only on what Angola has to offer, but also on how investors can understand the country’s opportunities, legal framework, institutional partners and priority sectors.

Those priority areas were clear: ecotourism, nature-based tourism, hotel and resort development, coastal tourism, cultural heritage and historical destinations. In other words, Angola was not selling a vague dream. It was beginning to define investable opportunities.

The summit also gave international investors a clearer sense of political commitment. Angola’s Ministry of Tourism did not treat the event as a symbolic gathering. The presence and active engagement of the country’s tourism leadership sent a clear message that the sector is being taken seriously as part of Angola’s economic diversification strategy.

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Third, execution

This is where the summit proved most significant.

Too many tourism forums end with applause, photographs and little follow-through. In Luanda, the emphasis was placed on moving from promotion to transactions, from conversation to commitments, and from visibility to implementation.

Several memoranda and strategic cooperation initiatives were advanced under the umbrella of Angola’s tourism investment agenda. These included international investment groups, global business networks, sustainability partners and domestic tourism operators.

One of the most significant outcomes was the signing of 11 memoranda of understanding during the summit. That figure matters because Angola does not simply need visibility; it needs a pipeline of partnerships capable of moving the sector from promotion to implementation.

The summit also demonstrated that Angola’s tourism strategy is not centred on one type of investor or one narrow market. It brought together foreign capital, institutional partners and local operators, creating a broader platform for hotel development, destination infrastructure, sustainability and private-sector participation.

This balance between international engagement and domestic participation is essential. Tourism development cannot be imported wholesale. It must be built on local knowledge, local employment and local ownership of the country’s tourism story.

The summit also produced something less visible but equally valuable: a new narrative.

For decades, Angola’s international image has been dominated by oil, reconstruction and infrastructure. Tourism rarely occupied the centre of that story. The Global Tourism Forum Angola Investment Summit helped change that narrative. It presented Angola as a country with an Atlantic coastline, national parks, rich cultural heritage, growing cities and a genuine opportunity to diversify its economy through tourism.

That shift is not merely symbolic. Perception influences investment. Investors rarely enter markets simply because governments say opportunities exist. They engage when they see organisation, accessibility, policy direction and credible intermediaries. In Luanda, Angola began to offer that combination.

The role of the Global Tourism Forum was to act as a bridge between state ambition and global capital. It brought together the language of diplomacy and the language of investment. It helped translate Angola’s tourism potential into a format that international investors, hotel groups, sustainability partners and media stakeholders could understand.

This is platform diplomacy in practice.

Modern tourism development is no longer only about destination marketing. It is about building ecosystems that connect investors, policy-makers, operators, media, airlines, hotel groups, sustainability partners and local communities. The Angola summit worked because it recognised this complexity. It did not reduce tourism to beaches and brochures. It treated tourism as an economic development sector.

Of course, the real test begins after the summit.

Angola must now convert visibility into projects. Memoranda must become implementation plans. Investor interest must become capital allocation. Policy guidelines must become simpler procedures. Local operators must be supported. Infrastructure must improve. International hotel brands must see viable routes into the market. Sustainability commitments must move from conference rhetoric to effective destination management.

But the significance of the summit lies in the fact that Angola now has a stronger platform from which to do that work.

The Global Tourism Forum Angola Investment Summit achieved more than a successful three-day gathering. It placed Angola’s tourism sector firmly within the international investment conversation. It connected the country with institutional partners, commercial networks, hospitality investors and local tourism stakeholders. It gave Angola’s tourism story structure, credibility and direction.

In a sector where perception shapes investment, that is a significant achievement.

Angola is no longer simply a country with future tourism potential. After Luanda, it is a country beginning to build a present-day tourism investment agenda.

And for an economy seeking to diversify beyond oil, that may be the summit’s most important legacy.

L’article Angola transforms tourism vision into an investment agenda est apparu en premier sur Travel Tomorrow.

Across the continent, governments are increasingly looking beyond traditional growth models and towards sectors capable of creating jobs, attracting investment, strengthening national brands and connecting their economies more closely to global markets. In this evolving development landscape, tourism is no longer a secondary industry. It is emerging as a strategic instrument of economic transformation.

Angola is among the countries embracing this shift.

Under the leadership of João Lourenço, Angola is positioning tourism as a pillar of national development. This ambition extends far beyond attracting more visitors. It is about creating a platform for investment, infrastructure development, cultural diplomacy, regional growth and international confidence.

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This approach deserves attention well beyond Angola’s borders. It reflects a modern understanding of tourism as statecraft, recognising that tourism today is not only about destinations but also about perception, connectivity, competitiveness and trust. It shapes how a country presents itself to investors, international partners, travellers and global institutions.

Tourism occupies a unique position within economic policy because of its ability to connect multiple sectors simultaneously. It supports aviation, hospitality, construction, culture, technology, conservation, agriculture, creative industries and small businesses. Crucially, it creates opportunities not only in major cities but also in coastal communities, rural regions and emerging destinations.

When strategically managed, tourism becomes far more than an economic activity. It becomes a development framework capable of generating investment, supporting entrepreneurship and enhancing international visibility.

Angola’s current direction reflects this understanding. By giving tourism a more prominent role within its broader economic agenda, the government is signalling that the sector is viewed as a vehicle for long-term growth, private sector participation and global engagement.

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This political commitment is particularly significant because tourism development cannot rely solely on marketing campaigns or promotional slogans. Successful destinations are built through infrastructure investment, public-private partnerships, skills development, investment facilitation, cultural promotion and effective institutional coordination.

Roads, airports, hotels, coastal developments, national parks, conference facilities, digital platforms and hospitality training programmes are not isolated initiatives. Together, they form the foundations of a competitive tourism economy.

In this respect, Angola offers an important lesson for the wider African continent. Africa possesses some of the world’s most remarkable natural and cultural assets. Its landscapes, coastlines, cities, cuisine, music, traditions and heritage provide an extraordinary basis for tourism growth. Yet the next phase of development requires more than attractive destinations. It requires leadership, confidence and a clear national vision capable of transforming assets into opportunities and opportunities into investment.

By placing tourism at the centre of its economic repositioning, Angola is demonstrating how the sector can serve as a bridge between domestic development objectives and international capital. Tourism can strengthen a country’s global image, support new investment corridors and create platforms for dialogue between governments, businesses and international institutions.

This is especially relevant at a time when investors are seeking destinations with strategic clarity, long-term ambition and predictable policy environments. Capital follows confidence, and confidence is often built through coherent vision and political commitment.

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Angola’s tourism agenda also reflects a broader African priority: economic diversification through sectors that are inclusive, visible and scalable. Tourism remains one of the few industries capable of linking large-scale investment with local communities. A hotel development generates employment, but it also supports farmers, transport providers, designers, guides, restaurants, artisans and numerous other service businesses. A destination, therefore, becomes more than a place to visit; it becomes an ecosystem of economic opportunity.

For Angola, this multiplier effect has considerable potential. With its Atlantic coastline, cultural heritage, diverse landscapes, vibrant cities and growing investment profile, the country possesses many of the ingredients required to become one of Africa’s most compelling tourism destinations. The challenge now lies in continuing to build the strategic framework necessary to convert these advantages into sustainable economic value.

This is not solely an Angolan story. It reflects a broader African conversation about development, competitiveness and global positioning. Across the continent, there is growing recognition that tourism should not be viewed as a decorative sector but as a serious component of economic policy. Countries that succeed will be those that integrate tourism into wider strategies for investment, infrastructure, connectivity and international engagement.

The experience of Angola illustrates how political leadership can help drive that transformation. By incorporating tourism into a broader national vision, the country is contributing to a wider redefinition of tourism’s role in economic development. The sector is not simply about visitor arrivals, hotels or events. It is about how nations organise their future, communicate their ambitions and build confidence among global partners.

The lesson is straightforward: tourism succeeds when it is supported by political will.

Angola’s tourism strategy is therefore more than a sectoral initiative. It is an expression of national ambition and a reflection of a country seeking to engage with the world through confidence, purpose and long-term planning. It demonstrates how African nations can build development models rooted in their own assets, cultural identity and strategic priorities.

For investors, Angola merits attention. For policymakers across Africa, it offers a timely example of how tourism can contribute to economic diversification and international positioning. And for the global tourism industry, it serves as a reminder that the future of tourism will be shaped not only by destinations themselves, but by leaders who recognise the sector as one of the most powerful instruments of national development in the twenty-first century.

L’article Angola’s tourism push: how João Lourenço is rewriting Africa’s development playbook est apparu en premier sur Travel Tomorrow.

The difference is rarely the destination itself. Many countries possess coastlines, heritage sites, biodiversity, urban culture, hospitality traditions and landscapes capable of attracting international visitors. What separates successful tourism economies from unrealised potential is not simply the quality of the product, but the quality of political commitment behind it.

Tourism growth begins as a political decision.

Without clear political will at the highest level of the state, tourism tends to remain fragmented. Ministries may launch campaigns. Agencies may attend fairs. Investors may be invited. Master plans may be written. But without a coherent signal from the presidency, the prime minister’s office or the central executive authority, tourism policy often becomes cyclical, reactive and institutionally weak.

In such environments, the sector remains vulnerable to bureaucratic discontinuity, underinvestment, unclear regulation and limited investor confidence. Tourism potential may exist, but it does not mature into a structured economy.

The historical record is instructive.

Türkiye’s tourism transformation did not emerge spontaneously. It was the outcome of a deliberate policy shift beginning in the 1980s, when tourism was elevated into a strategic growth sector. Investment incentives, coastal development, hotel capacity expansion and infrastructure modernisation were aligned with a broader national objective. Over time, that political decision reshaped the Turkish economy, turning the country into one of the world’s most competitive tourism destinations.

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Egypt provides another example of the relationship between state policy and tourism resilience. Under President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, tourism has remained embedded within a broader national development agenda that includes infrastructure expansion, heritage restoration, security management and destination repositioning. Egypt’s ability to recover and expand its tourism economy reflects not only the strength of its historical assets, but also the continuity of political attention given to the sector.

Indonesia has followed a comparable logic. By identifying tourism as a priority sector, the Indonesian state has connected destination development with infrastructure, regional growth, investment facilitation and employment policy. The result is a model in which tourism is not treated merely as a visitor industry, but as a platform for inclusive and sustainable development.

These cases illustrate a central policy lesson: tourism becomes transformative only when it is governed as a national economic strategy.

This lesson is particularly relevant for Africa.

The African continent holds some of the world’s most compelling tourism assets. Its natural landscapes, cultural diversity, wildlife, coastal corridors, historical depth and young populations represent an extraordinary foundation for future growth. Yet much of Africa’s tourism potential remains undercapitalized. The issue is not a lack of attraction. The issue is the absence, in many cases, of a fully institutionalized tourism investment framework supported by the highest levels of government.

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International investors do not evaluate destinations solely through the lens of beauty or market potential. They evaluate the political economy of the destination.

They ask whether the country offers stability. They ask whether the government sees tourism as a long-term priority or a short-term promotional exercise. They examine the clarity of the regulatory environment, the credibility of institutions, the quality of infrastructure, the availability of bankable projects and the consistency of leadership. In emerging markets, political confidence often precedes financial confidence.

This is where Angola deserves closer attention.

For decades, Angola was primarily viewed through the lens of energy, natural resources and post-conflict reconstruction. Today, however, the country is attempting to reposition itself within a broader economic diversification agenda. Tourism is increasingly part of that conversation. The country’s landscapes, Atlantic coastline, cultural heritage, biodiversity and urban development potential offer a basis for a more ambitious tourism economy.

But Angola’s most important asset may not be physical. It may be political.

Under the leadership of President João Lourenço, Angola has begun to articulate a clearer development agenda focused on reform, diversification, infrastructure and international engagement. In this context, tourism is not simply a sectoral opportunity; it is part of a wider state-building and economic modernization project.

For tourism investors, this distinction matters.

A country can possess attractive destinations but fail to attract capital if investors do not believe in the policy environment. Conversely, a country that demonstrates political stability, executive commitment and institutional seriousness can accelerate investor confidence even before its tourism infrastructure is fully mature.

This is the stage at which Angola now finds itself.

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The country is not yet a fully developed tourism powerhouse. Nor should it be measured by the standards of mature destinations that have benefited from decades of accumulated investment. Angola should instead be understood as an emerging destination economy at the beginning of a long-term transition. Its current value lies not only in what already exists, but in what can be built if political will, public policy and private capital are aligned.

That alignment is precisely what international tourism investment platforms are designed to support.

As Global Tourism Forum, our role in Angola is not limited to convening an event. It is to contribute to the construction of investor confidence around a country that is seeking to reposition tourism within its national development agenda. The Global Tourism Forum Angola Investment Summit is intended to function as a strategic interface between the Angolan state, international investors, hotel groups, financial institutions, aviation stakeholders, sustainability organizations and global tourism leaders.

Such platforms matter because investment does not move only toward opportunity. It moves toward confidence.

When investors gather in a country, meet its leadership, understand its priorities and observe institutional commitment, perception begins to change. The country becomes more legible to global capital. Its projects become more credible. Its tourism narrative becomes more structured. In emerging destinations, this process of confidence-building is often the first step toward long-term investment.

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Angola’s current tourism trajectory should therefore be viewed through a generational lens.

The foundations being laid today may not produce their full results immediately. Tourism economies are built over decades. Airports, hotels, coastal zones, cultural districts, national parks, training systems, investment legislation and destination brands require time. But the earliest stage of transformation is always political. Before the hotels are built, before the routes are expanded and before the visitor numbers rise, the state must decide that tourism matters.

President João Lourenço’s vision appears to recognize this reality.

By supporting Angola’s economic diversification and opening the country to broader international engagement, his leadership is helping create the conditions under which tourism can become a serious component of national development. The significance of this moment lies not merely in current projects, but in the strategic direction they represent.

The seeds being planted today may appear modest. But this is how destination economies are built. Türkiye’s tourism success was not visible in full at the beginning of its reform period. Egypt’s current momentum rests on years of political attention and institutional continuity. Indonesia’s tourism growth reflects a sustained national prioritization of the sector.

Angola is now entering its own formative phase.

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If the country maintains political consistency, strengthens institutional coordination, improves the investment environment and continues to position tourism as a pillar of diversification, the results could be profound. In twenty years, the decisions being made today may be remembered as the early foundations of Angola’s emergence as one of Africa’s most important tourism investment destinations.

For this reason, I wish to express my sincere appreciation to H.E. President João Lourenço. His vision and leadership are helping place tourism within Angola’s broader national development conversation. The initiatives undertaken today may begin as small institutional steps, but over time they can grow into a durable tourism economy that benefits future generations.

Tourism is not only about visitors. It is about the credibility of the state, the confidence of investors and the capacity of a country to convert its identity into economic value.

In the twenty-first century, tourism is increasingly a matter of statecraft.

And Angola, under its current leadership, is beginning to demonstrate that it understands the strategic importance of that choice.

L’article Tourism as statecraft: how political will can transform destination economies est apparu en premier sur Travel Tomorrow.