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Tue, 06 Jan 2009 | 10:11 GMT

Regional travel within ME rises

Emirates Business 24/7
 
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01 December 2008
While travel has become more localised within the Middle East, there is also a shift away from business class flying, as travellers respond to fears of a recession, according to YouGovSiraj's survey - Travel Tracker.

Overall, however, travellers remain optimistic in the long-term, with people expecting to travel more outside the region in the next year, the survey revealed.

Meanwhile, there has been a slight shift away from business class travel, which is down from 18 per cent to 13 per cent compared to premium economy, which is up three per cent, according to the survey.

It revealed that the usual class of travel remains economy for most business travellers and nearly all leisure travellers, which is not expected to change in the next 12 months.

Of almost 3,500 travellers from the Middle East and North Africa surveyed, 2,219 of these were business travellers and 1,271 were leisure travellers. While travel overall has not expanded as predicted and remained fairly stable over the last year, trips within the region have increased more than expected, the survey indicated, adding the UAE remained the top visited business destination. Whereas, in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Algeria and Syria the number of trips almost doubled. However, trips outside the region to China, the UK, the US and Italy have not increased as planned, as per the survey findings.

"We are starting to see some signs the market has been affected, with business travel volumes not expanding as predicted and travel becoming more localised," said Jane Wilson, Director, Travel and Tourism Research at YouGovSiraj. "But currently expectations are that these will be reversed quite quickly. Regional carriers continue to roll out their growth plans and even BA has increased its frequency to Dubai. The knock on impact still may take some time to come and we will continue to track this and monitor what is happening."

While both business and leisure travel has been fairly stable over the past 12 months, travel is expected to increase again in the next year, the survey said.

The UAE, meanwhile, is expected to remain the top visited destination for business trips.

By Shweta Jain

© Emirates Business 24/7 2008

 
 
 
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