The Sharjah Commerce and Tourism Development Authority (SCTDA) recently announced its tourism figures for the first nine months of 2013. The Authority released statistics of Sharjah’s hotel industry performance. The tourism market in the Emirate has witnessed a 10% growth, with a total number of 1,391,632 international tourists visiting the Emirate until September this year. The Emirate also received a total of 455,489 European tourists forming 33% of its total international arrivals, the tourists from the GCC countries stood at 509,481 tourists commanding 37% of Sharjah’s tourist numbers. The Arab tourists at 178,268 constituted 13% of the Emirate’s tourism market whereas the Asian tourists at 192,715 took a share of 14%. The rest came from the Americas, Asia Pacific and Africa, forming 4% of the total arrivals. The hotel room nights during this period stood at 2,474,270. The number of hotel properties in the Emirate now stands at 103 (48 hotels and 55 hotel apartments). The total number of rooms has reached 9,573. With a number of new hotels and luxury resorts coming up in Sharjah and investments pouring into the hospitality sector, the number of hotel rooms is expected to reach 12,000 hotel rooms by 2015 keeping pace with the growth of tourist numbers. Source: Travel Daily