Gulf News -
Thursday, 29 July 2010 - 17 Shaban 1431 H
Sharjah tourist arrivals
increase 11%
Majority of
holidaymakers from Europe while 25% are from GCC and 11% from other Arab
countries
Staff Report
Sharjah: The number of tourist
arrivals in Sharjah increased by 11 per cent in the first half of this year,
compared to the same period in 2009, according to the latest report by the
Sharjah Commerce and Tourism Development Authority (SCTDA).
Resilience
The report also shows a 70 per
cent hotel occupancy rate in the period under review. As many as 745,069 guests
stayed in the emirate's 107 hotel and hotel apartments, compared to the 671,662
guests reported in the corresponding period in 2009, an increase of 11 per cent.
The total number of occupied
rooms in Sharjah's hotels and hotel apartments was 783,396 in 2010, an eight per
cent increase over the same period last year.
The majority of tourists (45
per cent) entering Sharjah in the first half of 2010 were from Europe, while 25
per cent were from the GCC, 14 per cent from Asian countries, 11 per cent from
other Arab countries, and the remaining five per cent were from the
Commonwealth, the United States, Africa and the Pacific region.
"The statistics provide clear
evidence of the resilience of Sharjah's tourism sector, and its ability to
maintain its previous achievements while pressing ahead with well-studied plans
for the future to further increase the tourist flow from all over the world,"
Mohammad A. Al No'man, SCTDA Director-General, said in a statement.