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Outbound travel from UAE on the rise in ’04

ABU DHABI — The number of UAE residents travelling abroad for business and leisure has gone up compared to previous years, a study by Dubai-based research firm has revealed.

According to market vision, which released the findings of its study on the UAE outbound travel market, 2.86 million trips were undertaken by the residents in 2004 with total expenditure amounting to Dh17. 89 billion, 69 per cent were for leisure, 26 for business and 5 for medical, religious and other purposes.

The report, based on primary research conducted amongst the UAE residents, addresses the needs of the travel and tourism trade by providing intelligence on the travel habits, behaviour and preferences of outbound travellers from the UAE.

The study stated that the consistent growth in population and the hectic pace of economic and trade development in the UAE have led to more number of people travelling for leisure and business. "The UAE's share of total outbound tourists from the Middle East region has increased to 18 per cent in 2004 from 12 per cent in 2002," said Gautam Sen Gupta, managing director of Market Vision.

Main points from the report: among the UAE travellers, 64 per cent go abroad at least once a year of which a majority goes on leisure trips. over two-thirds of holiday makers travel with family. One-half of the travellers prefer to stay in four and five star hotels or furnished apartments. On an average they spend 24 nights abroad per trip with an average expenditure per trip of over Dh5,695, higher than the European average of about Dh4,380.

These characteristics of the UAE outbound travel market are increasingly being recognised by intra-regional and inter-regional tourism destinations that have begun to focus on the UAE as a lucrative source market for tourism revenues," he said and added that the UAE travellers visit various parts of the world, with almost two-thirds of the travel is concentrated in the Asia-Pacific and Middle East regions.

Intra-regional travel is set to further increase with an added impetus being provided by greater ease of air access with more flight connections and the emergence of low-cost carriers.