There has been a dramatic increase in the number of international
tourist arrivals to countries of the Gulf and Red Sea since
1995 (Table 1). Tourist arrivals in the Gulf increased from
8.2 million to 22.9 million in 2010; while arrivals in the Red
Sea approximately tripled during the same period to reach in excess
of 32.9 million people. Average growth rates for individual
countries bordering these regions were 5–18% per annum. A
trend in both regions was the tendency for arrivals to be dominated
by relatively few countries. In the Gulf, Saudi Arabia and
UAE accounted, respectively, for 47% and 32% of total arrivals
in 2010, whereas in the Red Sea tourists primarily visited Egypt
(43%), Saudi Arabia (33%) and Jordan (13.9%). Exceptions to average
growth rates included Sudan (33%) and Iraq (46%), with the
latter having no arrival data for several years; and Eritrea, which
exhibited slightly negative growth. It should be noted, that arrival
data for Sudan, Eritrea, Iran, Iraq and Kuwait were obtained
primarily from http://www.indexmundi.com/fact as figures were
either disparate or excluded from UWTO tourism highlights
2000–2010. Assumedly this was due to unreliable or unavailable
statistics related to political conflicts, or lack of government coordination.
Regardless, we included these statistics to illustrate
broad trends.