Skift Take

Increasing spending of domestic tourists is of paramount importance to the UAE and Saudi. Why? Because these residents are some of the highest spenders in travel.

Josh Corder

Domestic tourism is relatively new amongst Gulf countries whereby they look to increase the spending of residents in a country by prompting them to visit facilities designed for tourism.

The UAE's minister of economy this week said he wants the country to achieve a 50-50 split between international and domestic tourism, highlighting the deep pockets of UAE residents and locals.

"In the UAE today, 60% of its tourism is international and 40% is domestic. What is domestic tourism? Those are the nationals living here. We found that there are different products in the UAE for domestic tourists. Domestic tourists are important because they pay, they are high spenders", said Abdullah bin Touq Al Marri, minister of economy at the Future Hospitality Summit in Dubai.

In Dec