A Systematic Approach to Tourism Policy

The Middle East is the cradle of civilization and the birthplace of the revenue badly trail the neighboring countries in Europe; Italy, Spain, and Greece. As noted in Table 1, Spain and Italy by three major religions practiced today. As such, most countries in the Middle East have a natural competitive advantage in the global tourism far have the highest revenues from tourism relative to any other country in the table. On the other hand, in terms of industry. However, for many of these countries the potential of this tourism revenue as percentage of export, Egypt ranks the competitive advantage has not been reached. This research is designed to highest. In 1992, Egypt’s tourism revenue amounted to 89% provide policy makers with a systematic approach toward restructuring of Egypt’s total export. This fact underscores the importance their tourism strategies. Based on the results of this study, some significant of tourism to the Egyptian economy. Therefore, Egypt stands policy implications are identified. While the methodology presented in this to benefit greatly from investing in its tourism industry (The study is not without some weakness, it can be easily applied to other Middle East, 1994). Such an investment should make it feasicountries and regions. In this context, four Middle Eastern countries are ble for Egypt to better capitalize on its competitive advantage used to illustrate the approach proposed in this study. J BUSN RES 2000. by attracting more tourists from different regions of the world. 48.147–156.  2000 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved. Before Egypt and other countries in the Middle East region can claim a significant share of the global tourism industry’s $350 billion annual revenue, systematic tourism policies and efforts will be needed. In this context, some traditional probThe Middle East is the cradle of civilization and the lems which in the past hindered tourism in this region of the birthplace of the world’s three major religions. The world have to be overcome. One such important problem Middle East has witnessed the wax and wane of civilizahas been the political instability of the region (The Israel tions. More often than not, these civilizations managed to leave Commercial Economic Newsletter, 1991). However, the revivid testimony of their cultural achievements. The region of cent trend toward promoting regional peace and cooperation the Middle East which includes Iran, Jordan, the West Bank, is promising (The Middle East, 1995; Middle East Economic Syria, Israel and Egypt, among others, is a living legacy to the Digest, 1995; Israel Business Today, 1995). In this context, history of the human race. When one visits Persepolis in Iran, the willingness of policy makers in this region to promote Patra in Jordan, the Pyramids in Egypt, Tadmore in Syria, or tourism is also encouraging. For example, recently, Egypt Bethlehem in the West Bank, one not only experiences history invested $40 million to promote tourism and to ease tourists’ but lives it. However, tourism in this region of the world has safety concerns (Kelly, 1994). Similarly, Jordan has invested not reached its potential. heavily in updating its tourism-related facilities (Hoch, 1993). In recent years, the growth of the different facets of the There is no doubt that the countries of the Middle East global hospitality service sector has been significant. In this are facing some serious challenges which have a direct impact context, the global tourism industry is no exception. Yet, many on their abilities to utilize tourism as an effective economic countries which have the potential to capitalize on this trend development tool. However, challenges withstanding, these are lagging behind. Nowhere is this more true than in the countries have tremendous potential for economic growth, case of countries in the Middle East. An examination of Table as they are very rich in terms of their human capital and 1 (Statistical Yearbook, 1992) confirms this observation. The entrepreneurship tradition (Yasin, 1996). The peace process, four leading Middle Eastern countries in terms of tourism currently underway, should reduce regional conflict and enhance the political stability. This will no doubt make economic Address correspondence to Jafar Alavi, Associate Professor of Economics, growth in the region more feasible than ever before. However, East Tennessee State University, Department of Economics and Finance, P.O. Box 70686, Johnson City, TN 37614-0686. for such economic growth to become a reality, policy makers