Tourism activity in oil-importing Mena countries expected to bounce back by 2023, IIF says

Tourism activity in oil-importing Mena countries expected to bounce back by 2023, IIF says

The tourism sectors in Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia are only expected to bounce back by 2023 and the recovery will depend on rapid vaccine distribution and investments in digital technology, the Institute of International Finance (IIF) said.

Recovery, however, is expected to be "gradual and limited" and will be slower compared to its GCC counterparts, the IIF said.

"We expect the five tourism-dependent Mena economies to suffer much longer than the six GCC countries from the negative impacts of the pandemic," Garbis Iradian, the IIF's chief economist for Mena, Caucasus and Central Asia, said.