A proposal to introduce electronic ID cards containing biometric information, instead of passports, was raised during a meeting of the Arab Tourism Organization in Alexandria, Egypt. The initiative might enable tourists to travel more freely both within and between Arab countries in the region.

“Tourism is an important sector in many Gulf countries as they are trying to diversify their economies,” Yadullah Ijtehadi, managing editor of ABQ Zawaya.com, told The Media Line.

“Tourism is not a fringe sector of their economy, and they want it to be a key component,” he said.

“Tourists from the Gulf tend to be big spenders compared to those from the United States and Europe, they stay at five star hotels, fly business class and so on,” Ijtehadi said.

“Not just in the Gulf, but also countries such as Lebanon and Egypt would benefit greatly from Gulf tourists coming. There are also visa regulations which have to be taken into account,” he said referring to more stringent rules when traveling from the Middle East to the US.

“Lebanon is benefiting from this as they are seen as having more hospitals than the West.”

There are previous examples of a common regional passport in the Middle East.

In 2008 Kuwait started accepting the so-called Gulf Smart Card, a common passport for citizens of the Gulf Cooperation Council (Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Oman and the United Arab Emirates).

The implementation is being seen as a vital part of the economic integration of the member countries, though it does not especially target tourists despite the central role that tourism plays in the economy of many Gulf states.

According to the World Tourism Barometer, a tri-annual report from the World Tourism Organization, the number of international tourist arrivals in the Middle East decreased by 6 percent in 2009 but is expected to grow by between 5 to 9 percent in 2010. Some experts say Middle East countries can be divided into two types of tourism destinations. On the one hand there are the “old” countries with rich history to display such as Egypt or Syria.

Lebanon also falls into this category with the added advantage that it offers outdoor skiing.

The other category consists of the oil and natural rich countries in the Gulf region, which over the last twenty years have been working on diversifying their economies, with large-scale investments in airlines and hotels.