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UAE among world’s three safest countries – WEF

DUBAI: The UAE remains the third safest country in the world after Finland and Qatar, a World Economic Forum (WEF) report has pointed out.

While many Middle Eastern countries were negatively impacted by global unrest, the UAE and Qatar remain unaffected, Khaleej Times quoted the WEF’s latest Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report as saying.

Oman also made it into the top 10, in ninth place between Singapore and Portugal, the report said, adding that of the 141 countries included in the safety data, Egypt came in 136th place, and Pakistan in 138th.

The report noted that both Qatar and Oman have seen tourism increase. “Conversely, the UAE benefitted from redirected demand as it was regarded as a ‘safe’ destination, occupancy for the year increased eight per cent,” the report highlighted.

In terms of tourists, the report noted that the UAE leads the region and came in 24th place overall, having welcomed 10 million tourists in 2013.

Additionally, the report praised the UAE for diversifying its revenue stream and not relying solely on economic derived from natural resources, and ranked the UAE as having the fourth best business environment, between Qatar and Switzerland.

“While the UAE does not have rich natural resources (95th), it has built a unique environment to attract both business and leisure travelers. From Expo 2020 Dubai to the construction of the Louvre and Guggenheim, the UAE is investing in and giving significant importance to the development of the T&T industry,” Khaleej Times quoted the report.

“This is supported by its world-renowned air transport infrastructure (3rd) and positioning as a gateway for Europeans to Africa, the Middle East and Asia. It has created extremely effective branding campaigns (1st) and an enabling business environment for the industry’s development, with strides in travel facilitation and the liberalization of its visa regime (30th),” said the report.

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