Skift Take
Amidst spearheading global travel recovery, the Middle East's ambitious tourism goals come across as pragmatic rather than overly ambitious, backed by strategic capacity building efforts
Middle East Travel Roundup
Get the latest news from the Middle East in one easy-to-digest newsletter.
A Report We’ve been Reading…Skift’s State of Travel report 2023 adds interesting insights into the Middle East’s travel sector. What we learned:
Except aviation, the performance of all sectors – hotels, vacation rentals or car rentals – have surpassed 2019 levels in the Middle East. While international travel in most regions still lags 2019 levels, the Middle East is the only region to witness a complete recovery of international travel in the first quarter of 2023. United Arab Emirates was second among the fastest-growing destinations for international arrivals in 2022 after Austria. The country was also the most visited in the region last year with 22.7 million tourist arrivals, surpassing 2019 levels, followed by Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Morocco.Who’s Driving Tourism to the UAE?
India was the top source market for UAE with 806,000 arrivals, which was 11% more than 2019. Russian arrivals ranked second, 47% more tourists than 2019. UK and Saudi Arabia ranked third and fourth.Other Observations:
Travel search levels for UAE’s inbound flight and hotel search were much higher than 2019. With 66 million passengers, Dubai airport also ranked as the fifth most-busiest airport in the world even as the numbers were much below 2019’s 86 million. Dubai-Riyadh was also the fourth busiest international route last month. Egypt Explores Converting Government Buildings Into HotelsEgypt has realized that just having an ambitious goal to attract 30 million tourists by the end of this year may not be enough. It also needs to create capacity to accommodate these tourists.
The country is now exploring the possibility of converting certain government buildings into hotels, according to reports from London-based Al-Araby al-Jadeed newspaper.
Where Will These Hotels Come up?
Among the buildings set for transformation into hotels is the Tahrir Complex, situated in downtown Cairo.
The country welcomed a little less than 12 million tourists last year.
Oyo to Add 2,000 Apartments in Abu Dhabi for Expat HousingHospitality technology company Oyo has announced its plan to add 2,000 apartments in Abu Dhabi to meet the increasing demand for expatriate accommodation.
What's Oyo Doing in The Middle East?
Oyo has already added 750 apartments in key locations like Khalifa, Al Zeina, and Al Raha. The expansion