International arrivals into the UAE will grow over the next five years while the average spend will decline, reveals research which will be presented tomorrow at Reed Travel Exhibition’s Arabian Travel Market held in Dubai.
Delegates at the WTM Vision Conference – Dubai will see exclusive research, presented by Euromonitor International, which found that arrivals into the UAE will see a compound annual growth rate in excess of 7% per annum over the next five years.
But over the same period, average spend per visitor will decline by over 3%.
Other destinations in the region show a similar trend, Saudi Arabia will see visitor arrivals grow by 10% a year until 2016, with the average spend declining by around 4% a year.
Hotel prices across budget, mid and luxury hotels in the MENA region fell in 2010/11, with budget hotels seeing the biggest drop. MENA was the only region where hotel prices declined.
Senior travel executives were also told that the UAE was the third most visited destination by Indian travellers, giving it an important foothold with one of the world’s fastest-growing economies.
Euromonitor International’s Travel Industry Global Overview Report shows that consumers will still travel despite economic concerns, but are looking at value for money options.
Globally, arrivals growth will slow down to around 4% a year between 2011 and 2016. Average spend will grow by 1% from 2012.
This week’s event at Arabian Travel Market is the second WTM Vision Conference – Dubai. The WTM Vision Conference series has expanded this year, taking the number of conferences to five.Moscow and London took place successfully in April, with Shanghai and Florence later this May.
Reed Travel Exhibitions Exhibition Director World Travel Market Simon Press said: “Dubai was one of the earliest international hosts for the WTM Vision Conference brand, and we are pleased that both the WTM Vision events and Arabian Travel Market are growing.”
