The Middle East and North Africa is one of the world’s most culturally dense regions, where history is embedded in cityscapes, architecture, social practices, and everyday livelihoods. From ancient trade routes to living traditions passed through generations, heritage is not confined to the past. It continues to shape daily life and collective identity. This reality is driving a quiet but profound shift, one that positions culture and heritage as essential economic infrastructure. The cultural capital, from architecture to creative industries and local communities, is a strong engine of economic diversification across the region.
Morocco’s tourism performance in 2025 signals a clear upward trajectory. The kingdom welcomed over 15 million visitors, generating about $13.5 billion in revenue, a 14 percent year-on-year increase. Egypt received 19 million arrivals, up 21 percent, with tourism now contributing more than 4.7 percent to gross domestic product. The UAE recorded 25.2 million hotel guests in 2022, with travel and tourism representing 9 percent of GDP. These confirm the Arab world as one of the fastest-growing tourism regions. But the more significant development is not the scale of growth but its strategic direction. Across the region, policymakers and investors are pivoting from volume-based competition toward value-based models centered on quality of experience and per-visitor spending.
This transition is grounded in an empirical reality as cultural tourism generates superior economic returns. In Morocco, about 60 percent of visitors cite culture and heritage as central motivations for their trips. These culturally motivated travelers typically stay longer, spend more per day, and develop stronger place attachment than conventional leisure tourists. They are also more likely to return and recommend destinations within their networks.
The reconceptualization of heritage as economic infrastructure is transforming Saudi Arabia’s tourism landscape. One prominent example is AlUla, the pearl of the desert, combining conservation with strategic investment, generating demand for local services, skilled guides, artisans, and hospitality. Overseen by the Public Investment Fund, the Royal Commission for AlUla is driving a $1.6 billion development pipeline, aiming for 1 million visitors by 2030 and 2 million thereafter. The impact is already visible across the sector.
By Q3 2025, over 1 million Saudis were employed in tourism, a 6.4 percent increase from the previous year. Sustainability remains central, with eco-lodges and managed trails ensuring that heritage continues to deliver long-term economic value. In Egypt, the Grand Egyptian Museum alone is expected to attract up to 7 million additional visitors annually, highlighting the strong regional potential of heritage-based tourism.
The Gulf states have extended this logic beyond preservation and monuments into the realm of contemporary cultural production. For much of the 20th century, Arab popular culture revolved around Cairo’s cinema and Beirut’s music. Today, the center of gravity is shifting. Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar are emerging as vibrant hubs of the creative economy, with spaces such as Alserkal Avenue, Dubai’s premier arts district, and Doha Design District at the heart of Msheireb Downtown Doha leading the way.
Saudi Arabia now hosts MDLBeast Soundstorm, one of the world’s largest music festivals, alongside Riyadh Season, a months-long cultural and entertainment program that draws millions of visitors annually. Additionally, the Red Sea International Film Festival is positioning the Kingdom as a key player in global cinema. In Qatar, the Doha Film Institute has emerged as a champion of independent Arab storytelling. Similarly, in Abu Dhabi, the twofour54 media zone has succeeded in attracting major Hollywood productions.
From ancient trade routes to living traditions passed through generations, heritage is not confined to the past.
Zaid M. Belbagi
The economic implications are significant. UNESCO estimates that culture and creative industries account for 6.1 percent of the global economy, worth $4.3 trillion annually, and support more than 50 million jobs worldwide. For the Gulf states, these sectors offer a credible pathway to economic diversification, enriching tourism experiences, and projecting soft power. Culture, in this sense, becomes both an economic asset and a geopolitical instrument.
This experience-based model is not without risks. Tourism developments that operate as enclaves, disconnected from local communities, can generate resentment rather than shared prosperity, eroding the social license needed for long-term growth. Heritage sites monetized without adequate protection risk becoming commodified, losing the authenticity visitors seek. High entrance fees can exacerbate this perception.
A notable example is Al-Azhar Park, redeveloped by the Aga Khan Foundation, which charges 40 Egyptian pounds ($.85), rendering Cairo’s second-largest green space too expensive for the local population to visit. Additionally, sustainability branding, when unsupported by credible certification and enforcement, loses traction with discerning travelers. Long-term competitiveness depends on governance decisions that include building skilled employment pathways, enforcing environmental limits and coordinating policies across culture, environment, transport, and infrastructure authorities.
Another strategic opportunity lies in regional integration. Cross-border cultural initiatives could revive ancient trade routes as shared heritage corridors, link Mediterranean cities through layered historical narratives, or connect Islamic, Christian and Jewish sites into pluralistic stories of coexistence. Cities such as Marrakech, where Muslims, Berbers, Arabs, Jews, Christians, and Andalusians have left enduring marks, from the historic medina to the Jewish cemeteries and synagogues, embody this rich cultural mosaic. In an era where soft power increasingly flows through storytelling, the region’s cultural memory represents both economic potential and strategic influence.
What is unfolding across the MENA region is a deeper reconceptualization of tourism’s role in economic development. The shift from volume to value reflects a more sophisticated understanding of competitiveness, one that treats cultural differentiation as a renewable advantage rather than a finite resource. Investments in heritage sites, cultural institutions, creative industries and enabling infrastructure are, in effect, long-term bets that culture can drive growth without hollowing out the very authenticity on which it depends.
Early signals are encouraging. Rising per-visitor spending, longer stays, improved global competitiveness rankings, and increasing public and private capital flows show that the strategic reorientation is gaining momentum. The region’s vast cultural endowment offers a strong foundation. Whether it becomes a lasting advantage will depend on whether governance, investment discipline, and operational capacity can match the scale of ambition.
- Zaid M. Belbagi is a political commentator and an adviser to private clients between London and the Gulf Cooperation Council. X: @Moulay_Zaid