JEDDAH: The number of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) citizens traveling to member nations has increased from 4.5 million in 1995, to 12.4 million in 2005 and 19 million in 2014, growth of more than 65 percent over the past decade.

This is according to statistics released by the GCC’s general secretariat, which stated that Bahrain attracted the biggest proportion of Gulf citizens with more than 6.6 million in 2014, compared to 4.5 million in 2005, growth of 48.4 percent.

Saudi Arabia was second on with more than 6.1 million Gulf citizens. Oman saw a massive 427.5 percent increase in visitors from 110,000 in 2005 to 581,000 in 2014, the report stated.

Qatar received more than 1.1 million people in 2014, compared to 376,000 in 2005, an increase of 197.9 percent; while visitors to Kuwait rose by 142.5 percent, from 1.2 million in 2005 to 2.9 million in 2014.