Dubai second most popular travel spot for young Brits

By Shane McGinley
  • Tuesday, 29 December 2009 12:43 PM
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Dubai is forecast to be the second most popular location among young Brits next year and over a quarter are expected to visit the emirate over the next decade, according to a report by a UK travel group.

STA Travel, which advises young travelers on over 90 countries and has 400 branches worldwide, has released its ‘Future of Independent Travel’ report and has included Dubai among its top destinations for 2010.

“Despite the recent controversy and discussions surrounding Dubai it seems that young people still place it high up on the list as a must-see destination,” the report said.

Its research also claims that Dubai will attract 26 percent of British 18-35-year-old travelers over the coming decade.

"Dubai has been growing rapidly over the last three to four years and has everything - the beaches, restaurants, bars, shops, compact size and guarantee of warm weather. No longer just the haunt of the rich and famous, the opening of affordable hotels and the availability of cheap flights mean Dubai is becoming an ideal weekend destination and stopover of choice," said Chris Norris, STA Travel’s Middle East expert.

The research, conducted by YouGov on behalf of STA Global, found that Los Angeles was the most popular location and was favoured by 29.4 percent of those surveyed, followed by Dubai (25.8 percent), Hong Kong (24.2 percent), Mexico (16.1 percent), Capetown (15.8 percent), Berlin (14.9 percent), Tokyo (14.7 percent), Beijing (14.2 percent), Buenos Aires (11.2 percent) and Lisbon (7.7 percent).

This follows a report by the Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) which also highlighted Dubai as one of its top travel hotspots for 2010.

“If you are after a bargain, Dubai will be a place to go in 2010. The state-backed Dubai World debt announcement at the end of November, has triggered a price war in hotel room rates to stimulate demand and a currency which is losing its value,” the ABTA said.

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Please post responsibly. Commenter Rules

Posted by: Sam the Sham Sunday, 3 January 2010 8:02 PM[UAE]

Given that STA deals with a lot of student backpackers, does anyone really think many of them can afford Dubai? Pinch of salt please.

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Posted by: BRANDO Saturday, 2 January 2010 11:23 PM[UAE] - Not so GOOD OLD BLIGHTY

LOL, Looks like the overall concensus so far is that 18 to 30 year old British tourists are like a plague of ignorant, irresponsible, disrespectful, drunk no moral louts that swarm and destroy once idilic and beautiful tourism destinations worldwide. Ibiza, Prague, Spain, Cyprus, Greece, Thailand and coming soon to a place near you...Dubai ! Nice move Dubai, you could always use some of those empty properties to lock them all up in when your prisons get full ! The sad thing is that for every single drunk idiot you lock up you will receive bucket loads of bad international press.

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Posted by: Deborah Ramsay Saturday, 2 January 2010 10:55 AM[UAE] - UAE

What a disaster for Dubai...The new Ibiza of the Arabian Gulf. Opening the flood gates to young Brit's is a disaster waiting to happen. These young Brit's abroad have the worse reputation in the world for loutish behaviour and total disrespect for any country including their own!! By attracting the typical tatooed lad's from the UK will drag down Dubai's appeal and really upset the local Emirates. I would give one simple piece of advice and keep hotel prices and airfares out of the reach of beer swilling yob's from the UK. I live in the Marina area and when there is loutish behaviour and drunken youth's shouting at 2am, 9 times out of ten they are British!!! Be warned Dubai!!!

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Posted by: Jon Thursday, 31 December 2009 9:10 AM[UAE] - UAE

In total agreement with Bahraintaxi and Brando. Attracting this market is not a good thing for Dubai. The upside however, is that I can't really see Dubai Municipality allowing the "St George" pub to open on Jumeriah Beach Road next to the "all you can eat egg and chips" diner - so they won't stay long.

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Posted by: BRANDO Wednesday, 30 December 2009 10:30 PM[UAE] - UK

I agree with Bahraintaxi (and yes i'm British) Attracting a bunch of British 18 to 30's is not exactly a great achievement as you will soon find out, make sure you have enough spare room in your jails if that's your target market for 2010 If you don't make sure they know the laws of the land and the consequences of breaking them "BEFORE" they get there you will definetly need it ! ...guarenteed. What is NORMAL behaviour for an 18 to 30 year old on British streets would shock the most liberal of Muslims (it shocks us too) @ Abu Zahra It does'nt prove anything and I did'nt know Dubai was an Island :)

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