Dubai’s weather may be too hot now but tour operators are offering ‘cool’ packages to travellers in India, making the city amongst the much sought after destination in the current summer holiday season in the South Asian country.
The packages are priced as low as $499 per person for a 6-night stay in a 5-star hotel including free breakfast, with free sightseeing and local travel thrown in.
They also include a visit to Abu Dhabi with a free entry ticket to the popular Yas Island water park.
The tour operators also offer travellers to customise the travel itinerary, with options like stays in 4 or 3-star hotels for a lesser package price or an additional two days stay in Abu Dhabi for paying a little extra.
Amit Udani, executive director at Mumbai-based Fly Aerolink Travel, said Mumbai-based Shreenathji Holidays and Dubai-based Rayna Tours are among the tour operators which are offering such packages.
“These packages are so attractive that we are now seeing a sudden spike in bookings for travel to Dubai for holidays,” Udani told Arabian Business.
“Generally, with long summer school and college breaks, people prefer long holidays – 10 to 14 days – during this season,” Udani said.
Senior executives at Shreenathji Holidays and Rayna Tours could not be reached for their comments on these offers.
Budget-friendly Dubai trips
Travel industry officials said such low-priced tour packages are too tempting to ignore for price sensitive Indian travellers, despite the not-so-friendly weather conditions in Dubai in these months.
For comparison, just one night’s stay in a 5-star hotel in Goa – a popular beach holiday destination in India – can cost around $364 (INR 30,000).
As against this, a person can not only stay in an upscale 5-star hotel in Dubai for 6 nights, but travel around and visit all the world famous theme parks desert safari rides and the popular malls in the city for just $135 – a really tempting offer for the ‘value for money’ Indian tourist, a senior executive with a Kochi-based tour and travel firm said.
Udani said the ‘cool’ Dubai tour packages have added to the rush for airline bookings to Dubai, which has already been seeing a surge in demand for transit travel to destinations in the West and elsewhere.
“Airlines such as Emirates and Qatar are the major beneficiaries of this as they are the preferred carriers for long-haul travel for Indian travellers,” Udani said.
These airlines are also offering attractive stop-over packages such as free hotel stay to woo travellers from India, he said.
“Dubai continues to be the most preferred transit hub for Indians, despite some of the Western airlines starting direct flights from more Indian cities and other Gulf airlines and airports coming up with attractive packages to woo Indian passengers,” Udani said.
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