RIYADH: The Arab world’s tourism industry is set to prosper thanks to a new agreement involving US-based advisory and consulting services provider International Strategic Management. Inked with the Arab Tourism Organization, the deal aims to achieve growth and innovation within travel and hospitality sectors in Middle Eastern countries, the Saudi Press Agency reported. This move comes as an extension of ATO’s efforts to develop and elevate the tourism industry in the Arab world as well as to bolster competitiveness in the sector. In addition, the new partnership also represents an opportunity to enhance the role of nations in the Middle East in developing their tourist destinations to achieve sustainable development. Under the terms of the newly signed deal, ISM will work on leveraging its accumulated expertise and specialized experts in the field to collaborate with ATO to achieve its goals and strategies. According to ATO, the total contribution of the travel and tourism sector to the worldwide gross domestic product is expected to reach 15 percent. This comes despite the fact that the sector’s total contribution to the GDP globally before 2019 did not exceed 10 percent. Moreover, ATO projected that revenues from the travel and tourism industry will rise at an annual growth rate of 3.4 percent until 2027, reaching over $1 trillion. Additionally, it is expected that the global tourism sector’s job market will reach 430 million openings by 2030, representing an increase of more than 30 percent compared to 2023 figures. In June 2023, Bandar bin Fahd Al-Fuhaid, the president of ATO, emphasized the necessity for Arab nations to strengthen tourism cooperation, capitalizing on the sector’s recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. Speaking at the opening ceremony of the Arab Tourism Media Forum organized in Tunisia, Al-Fuhaid explained that the global number of tourists is rising, indicating a strong rebound of the sector after the pandemic, which caused a $300 billion hit to the region’s travel industry. Headquartered in Jeddah, ATO operates within the framework of the Arab Ministerial Council on Tourism of the Arab League States, with the aim of activating and developing the industry among the regional countries.