Middle East to become world's leading travel hub by 2025: Amadeus

Amadeus stated (14-Dec-2010) the Middle East is poised to become the world's leading travel hub by 2025, according to its new report, Securing the Prize for the Middle East. Amadeus noted that 2 billion people are within 2.5 hours reach by air from the Middle East and by 2025, 7 billion people will be within reach via a single flight. Meanwhile, USD4 trillion has been announced in travel and tourism projects, USD86 billion is earmarked for airport development and USD7 billion is being invested in hotel projects. The number of tourists to the region is projected to double to 136 million by 2020. The report also noted that the Middle East is "ideally placed to underpin the next wave of globalisation, which will be fuelled by the emerging economies of the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China), as well as Latin America and Africa". [more - Full Report]