UAE and Saudi Arabia travel trends to boost GCC tourism

UAE: Al Rais Travel, the official DMC partner of Arabian Travel Market [ATM], has highlighted the latest trends supporting the growth of the tourism industry in the United Arab Emirates [UAE], Saudi Arabia and the rest of the GCC [Gulf Cooperation Council].

According to the insights from Al Rais, Dubai is seeing an uptick from key source markets, with visitor numbers from the UK and China continuing to rise.

Mohamed Al Rais, deputy managing director at Al Rais Travel, said: “Brand Dubai is trusted by people around the world. The country has rebounded incredibly well since Covid-19, with the latest figures for the first half of 2023 the best on record. As a travel company, our figures are very much representative of this. In terms of inbound markets, we’ve seen the top five markets shuffle to some extent, with Saudi dropping slightly and increases in British tourists.

“The return of the Chinese market, which, despite only coming back in Q1 of this year, has already moved into a top five position,” he added.

The trends have been revealed through the latest figures released by Dubai’s Department of Economy and Tourism [DET].

According to the latest statistics from DET, Dubai’s top source markets include India, which has seen a 44 per cent increase between January and August 2023 compared to the same period last year; Saudia Arabia, which has seen a nominal five per cent decrease during the same period; the UK, up 14 per cent; and the Chinese market, which according to the data has witnessed a 309 per cent jump in the first eight months of 2023 when compared to the same period in 2022.