Tourism sector in Yemen witnessed some growth over the past two years, an official report said, according to SABA.
The report entitled "Poverty Reduction Strategy Progress Report for 2003-2004",was released by the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation.
The report said that hotels and restaurants achieved an average of 0.9%of GDP in such period, as opposed to 0.8% in 2001-2002.
The number of tourists reached 154,000 in 2003, recording a sharp increase of 58 %, 60% of tourists were from Arab countries, mainly from the states of the Gulf Cooperation Council.
This percentage has risen up to 77.3 % in 2004. The report said the rise is due to improved infrastructure services, implementation of security plans, promotion of tourism and investment, in addition to simple immigration procedures at entry ports.
"It should also be noted that the rigid entry procedures adopted by some countries following September 11 encouraged Arab tourists to turn towards Arab destinations,' it said. The report added the number of people employed by tourism also raised from 55 thousand in 2000 to 61 thousand in 2003.
