Yemen Aviation Sector Need Our Government Attention: Air transport essential to growth and sustainability of tourism With over 40% of international tourists12 travelling by air, air transport provides essential support to tourism. Air transport thus contributes to raising or maintaining activity in the tourism sector directly. Moreover, similarly to the discussion of the overall effects of aviation, the contribution of air tourism to the economy goes well beyond activity in the tourism sector itself. Jobs and value added are created along the supply chain as tourism companies purchase goods and services from other sectors (‘indirect effects’). And there are induced effects accounted for by spending by employees in tourism and at tourism suppliers on goods and services across the economy. In 2007, more than 8 million tourism jobs were supported directly by the spending of foreign visitors arriving by air. Taking into account the indirect and induced jobs, air tourism accounted for more than 18 million jobs worldwide. This represents 0.6% of world employment. In developing countries, and particularly Africa, air tourism supports an even larger share of total employment (1.3%), highlighting the key role that the aviation sector plays in supporting growth in these regions. Case Study Etihad Airways Oxford Economics’ study of the overall contribution of Etihad Airways to the economy of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi shows that the bene!ts are far reaching. The airline is one of the key elements of the Emirate’s strategy to diversify the economy from its reliance on oil extraction. Based on a survey of businesses, the study showed that: • International business is mobile and high quality air links are vital to attracting and retaining investment. • Etihad Airways is integral to the future of Abu Dhabi as a tourism destination – providing broad and absolutely vital access to visitor markets. • The Etihad brand has already been recognised for a high level of customer service and amenities. Awards & accolades (and the travel experiences they represent) are directly raising the stock of ‘destination Abu Dhabi’. • The airline not only provides air services to major markets, but is an active partner in generating visitor demand. In this sense, Etihad supplies added assurance of investor returns and mitigates certain areas of risk. • Most importantly, the !ndings of the study have played a key role in providing quantitative evidence to shareholders of the long-term impact of Etihad Airways on the Abu Dhabi economy. In particular, the study has shown that the balance sheet of Etihad Airways does not represent its true economic value to Abu Dhabi – the overall economic impact is signi!cantly wider. Regards Moaad
Posted on: Fri, 14 Nov 2014 03:21:43 +0000
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