ArabianBusiness.com Travel Survey 2008

Tuesday, 6 May 2008 12:00 AM

Over the last few weeks ArabianBusiness.com has compiled a comprehensive survey of GCC travel habits and today (Tuesday) releases the results to coincide with the start of Arabian Travel Market (ATM) , the region's biggest travel and tourism trade fair.

The results of the annual survey provide travel industry professionals invaluable information and insight about an industry that is crucial to the future development and diversification of Gulf economies, especially Dubai, the region's tourism hub.

The survey has been designed to help companies in the industry put plans in place to maximise returns on their investments by providing data that allows them to better target potential customers and capitalise on business opportunities.

The survey reveals interesting facts about how often residents in each Gulf state travel , how much they spend , their reasons for travelling , what they like to do on holiday and whether they have a preferred airline , to name but a few.

One of the most significant pieces of information to come out of the survey for industry professionals is just how different travel habits are among residents living in each of the six Gulf states, highlighting the importance of a tailored approach when targeting travellers in the region.

Other important data to come out of the survey shows that travel demand will continue to grow over the next 12 months, with the vast majority of Gulf residents saying they plan to travel more often for both business and pleasure this year.

But it is the business travel sector that dominates the headlines of our survey this year, highlighting the growing significance of the Gulf in the global economy.

The ArabianBusiness.com Travel Survey will be compiled annually and one of the most interesting parts of any survey is how trends change over time.

It will be interesting to see whether business continues to dominate the travel landscape in the coming years with the amount of money Gulf states are pouring into developing their tourism industries.

For an overview of the survey's findings you can start in one of two places: access the data from one of the tabs at the top of the page, or visit the frequently asked questions section. Alternatively, you can dive right into our analysis - found in the right hand column.

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Disclaimer:The view expressed here by our readers are not necessarily shared by Arabian Business, its employees, sponsors or its advertisers.

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Read All 19 Comments

Posted by: zooey Wednesday, 3 June 2009 11:55 AM[UAE] - KSA

agree with Mr Nair that only the rewards program encourages me to fly EK, which i do, sometimes reluctantly, but frequently. -so my participation in the survey was coloured only by frequency of flying and not by preference as for Mr Satish of south africa, similar to you, my friends were travelling from Joburg to Dubai, and had the worst service ever; staff unwilling to do anything, and arrogant when they did. These were 2 young American Muslim girls wearing niqab. They were made to feel very bad by the cabin staff. Maybe it's something about the route?? either Durban or Joburg?

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Posted by: jaykrishnan Sunday, 17 August 2008 11:05 AM[UAE] - u.a.e.

LCCs play a major role in increasing Gulf states air travel. an average employee who used to travel to home country once in two year is travelling in every year. A person was flying once in a year has doubled or tripled his trip after the arrival of Low cost carriers. travel has become in an affordable way to common people. cannot hide the fact that most of the regions airlines have slashed their ticket price almost to half if not less than that due to increase of seat capacity and competition. The recent fuel price hikes did not massively effect the price structure of most of the regional carries except very few.

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Posted by: Step in Time Tours Wednesday, 14 May 2008 3:58 PM[UAE] - England

Although we can see a burgeoning Muslim travel trade increasing in the Middle East. Unfortunately this has overshadowed the importance of re-discovering certain destinations that have been oblivious to the Muslim world. European destinations such as Spain, was a part of the Islamic Empire in the medieval period of history and as a result of this its culture is infused totally with Islamic insertions. Indeed traveling to Spain and looking at this history provides solutions for many of the ideological problems we have today especially in terms of the so called Clash of Civilisations. This also provides clearer solutions behind resentment that has increased after 9/11 across the world. Which has lead to the UK's FCO and US State Department earmarked warnings.

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Posted by: george thomas Tuesday, 13 May 2008 2:07 AM[UAE] - united arab emirates

"To stem soaring unemployment among nationals". Good idea - but will thousands upon thousands of nationals be queuing up to work on the construction sites?

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Posted by: harsha Sunday, 11 May 2008 10:47 AM[UAE] - uae

I had participated in the travel survey. I wanted to know the results of the most preferred destination for holidays. How can I see the same results. Editor's reply We will release this information shortly.

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