The UK, India, Israel and France among top source markets
Overseas travellers are again upbeat about visiting the UAE as a renewed sense of confidence started to emerge on the back of a series of positive legal and diplomatic reforms in the country, according to a new research.
Since early September, hotel bookings made by the UAE-bound travellers have jumped by up to 147 percent, while travel intent and confidence have surged over the last month, the latest report from travel marketing firm Sojern revealed.
The new insights, which are based on data collected on December 7, 2020, including 350-million traveller profiles and billions of travel intent signals, also revealed that most of the customers looking to visit the UAE are from the United Kingdom, India, Israel, France and Germany, the top five international source markets.
The UAE’s travel and tourism markets have been impacted by the huge decline in international visitor traffic as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. It was earlier forecast that hotels in the country would end the year with less than 50 percent full-year occupancy rate due to the downtrend.
Shift
But the recent string of changes introduced in the country may have altered the trend and brought some degree of optimism among international travellers. Sojern noted that the UAE has signed a peace accord recently to normalize ties with Israel, while the government has also issued landmark civil, criminal and business law reforms to make the country more expat and business friendly.
In addition, the UAE has been added to the UK travel corridor list, which means a 14-day quarantine for travellers arriving in the country is no longer required. The country has also activated tourist entry visas for Israeli passport holders, while borders around the region have opened, and travel restrictions have been lifted.
“This last month has seen good news for the UAE,” Sojern said in its report released on Tuesday.
“Travel intent and confidence have increased dramatically over the last month. In efforts to improve legislation, enhance the investment climate, and to make the country more expat friendly, the UAE federal government introduced a number of legal reforms ... This has been further fuelled by [the recent announcement to decrease the price of PCR swab tests in the UAE], making testing more accessible, especially for those who require frequent testing,” Sojern noted.
Hotel bookings, flight searches
Looking at global hotel bookings in the UAE, Sojern found that since the week starting September 6, the current year percentage change in hotel searches to the UAE from all origins is 76 percent for Dubai and 24 percent for Abu Dhabi. Hotels in Dubai and other emirates saw higher increase in bookings, at 147 percent and 56 percent, respectively.
“This growth in travel confidence is a huge step in the right direction towards recovery for the country,” said Sojern.
In terms of potential travellers from various markets around the world, a significant portion of flight searches, 19.6 percent, come from India, while 14.3 percent come from Pakistan. France also emerged as an important market, accounting for 4.4 percent of flight searches globally.
As to how long international visitors intend to stay in the UAE, travel behaviour over the last 60 days revealed that about 52 percent of those who have been planning their trips are looking to spend more than a week in the country.
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