(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) Egypt Turkey other favourites in the region
The UAE is a most popular destination for Middle East and Africa travellers who are feeling optimistic about future travel with one in two intending to take a holiday in the next one year Visa’s latest Global Travel Intentions Study has revealed.
The regular barometer of travel trends from Visa Inc was launched on Tuesday at the Arabian Travel Market in Dubai and surveyed 13603 travellers across 25 countries in January and February 2015.
“Our latest Visa Global Travel Intentions Study is shining a very positive light on the region and UAE’s industry and what’s interesting to see is that people from this region are serious about their leisure time. People from the MEA region holiday for an average of 13 nights per trip — which is more than the global average and travellers from Saudi Arabia and Egypt put aside the largest travel budgets per trip” said Marcello Baricordi general manager for the UAE and global accounts lead at Visa Mena.
The regular barometer of travel trends from Visa revealed that future travel sentiment from the Middle East and Africa looks very positive with 81 per cent of people surveyed from the region planning to travel for leisure in the next year. Travellers from the UAE especially are prolific travellers with 95 per cent of respondents saying they will travel for leisure in the next year.
The results of the study also disclosed that the UAE ranked ahead of Egypt and Turkey as 16 per cent of the 1637 respondents from the Mena region chose UAE as their most favoured travel destination within the region in 2015. The UAE also remains among the top destination choices for global travellers over the next year.
While globally respondents say they put aside a median travel budget of $2281 per trip those from the Mena region report they will spend substantially more. Of the 25 countries surveyed travellers from Saudi Arabia said that they spend the most — a median of $5866 per trip — closely followed by Egyptians at $4917 in second place and Chinese travellers at $4780 in third. Travellers from the UAE put aside a median travel budget of $2518 per trip which is higher than the global median.
The study also found strong use of payment cards throughout a holiday — both to plan and pay before one leaves and to pay for activities during a holiday. In the planning stage cards are the most preferred way to pay for holidays with 46 per cent of global travellers using only cards at that stage. While at their destination eight out of 10 global travellers (81 per cent) use a combination of cards and cash to pay.
The study also revealed that exploring the world at your own pace and schedule is increasingly popular as up to 24 per cent of global travellers are now opting to travel alone compared to 15 per cent in 2013. Solo travel is a long-standing trend for travellers from the Mena region with 26 per cent travelling solo in 2015. While about three out of 10 travellers (31 per cent) from the UAE and Egypt are likely to travel solo Moroccans are the biggest solo travellers from the region at 36 per cent. These travellers have a tendency to have defined travel plans with 83 per cent of them already having decided on their destination before they start to plan their holidays.
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