With Eid Al-Fitr holidays fast approaching, and global Covid restrictions easing, international travel is in the books for UAE residents.
The most popular destinations for travellers from the UAE getting away or visiting friends and family this Eid are London, Istanbul, Manila, Cairo, Paris, Casablanca, New York, and Los Angeles, industry stakeholders confirmed.
“Eid Al-Fitr is usually a last-minute booking decision and, as such, people normally travel to places which are easy to get to and they either already have visas or visas are not required,” said Sammy Musa (below), chief executive officer at Gulf Reps.
“Given the fact that the UAE government has announced a nine-day holiday this year, travellers may decide to travel further afield, so I expect places in Western Europe such as London, France, Switzerland and Germany to perform quite well.”
Musa added: “On the other side of that, ease of visa applications for certain expatriate groups will mean that countries who accept either e-visa or visa on arrival, such as Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia, will also see a string of arrivals from the region. Other potentially strong performing destinations would be Thailand from Saudi Arabia and the UK from Kuwait.
“This will be the first Eid holiday after the world has effectively opened up post-pandemic so my expectation is that outbound travel will be strong from the region.”
Hotels in London confirmed that they’ve seen increased bookings from Middle East travellers and see this as a taste of what is to come in the summer.
“This year is looking really good. We’ve seen a definite increase in the volume of bookings from the Middle East, not only for the coming Eid weekend, but also over the summer which we are very excited to see,” said Francis Kisby, director of sales and marketing at London Marriott Hotel Grosvenor Square.
“There is a significant uplift compared to the last couple of years, as the hotel and city is open once again and ready to welcome travellers. Indeed, bookings for 2022 are actually ahead of pre-pandemic levels, which is hugely positive and we believe this reflects the attraction of London to people, so many of whom have waited a long time to be able to visit,” he added.
Flights influencing tourism numbers
Frequent flights out of Dubai to global destinations have contributed to a rise in tourism in those cities with Azerbaijan giving the example of how they received 32,000 visitors from the GCC in 2021 compared to 22,000 arrivals in the first quarter of 2022 alone.
“The main factors for this include frequent flights from Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah, as well as the ease of obtaining an e-visa and visa on arrival, and the alleviated travel restrictions with travellers now only required to submit a Covid passport now to enter Azerbaijan,” said Florian Sengstschmid, CEO at Azerbaijan Tourism Board.
“This is very much a transitional period, and the UAE and GCC in general play an important role in Azerbaijan reaching pre-pandemic visitor numbers.”
Sengstschmid concluded: “We are committed to continuing to build fruitful relations with our trade partners in this market as well as developing even more exhilarating tourism offerings for curious travellers from the region.”
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