Tajawal travel trends report reflects on 2019 as the year of budget travels for UAE locals and residents

Holidaymakers flew to closer-to-home destinations in the Middle East, Levant and South East Asia

Tajawal, one of the fastest developing Dubai-based online flight and resort reserving platforms in the UAE, celebrates its fourth anniversary with 2019 travel insights highlighting how residents throughout the UAE embody regional destinations, value-for-money airline fares and mid-range hotels over the previous year.

Historical and culturally-rich cities such as Cairo, Amman and Beirut were amongst the top three holiday hotspots in 2019, carefully observed by Colombo and Baku. As mentioned in 2018, July and August proceed to be the top season for travel as residents get away the summer season.

Boutique three-star hotels have additionally elevated in reputation with 44% rise as antagonistic to luxurious 5-star hotel reservations that declined by 20% in contrast to 2018. Budget-minded visitors are looking for no frills lodging and there is a massive demand for mid-range and budget hotels providing genuine experiences and restricted quantity of on-site amenities.

Muzzammil Ahussain, EVP of tajawal, said: It has been a splendid experience for tajawal so far. Offering flights on over 450 airlines, more than 1.5 million hotels and entire vacation packages, tajawal has completed major milestones over the last 4 years, as over 757,000 passengers have travelled to 1,133 places and more than 356,000 room nights in 2,554 locations were booked via our internet and app channels. We have been continuously striving to give choice, flexibility and convenient reserving experiences to our customers via our intuitive platform and superior homegrown solutions. We will proceed to innovate and cater to the evolving tour needs and behaviours of UAE residents as we enter a new decade.

2019 indicates an growing quantity of people opting for planned bookings versus last-minute getaways with the average reserving window up by 12% as compared to 2018.

The style of multiple brief breaks additionally declined, with UAE residents taking longer vacations to destinations in the Middle East, Levant and Southeast Asia. Also, the average length-of-stay noticeably elevated by 42% versus 2018 as holidaymakers explored various cultures, landscapes and climates.

Tajawal discovered a shift in spend as inexpensive carriers emerged as the desired preference for air travel with 30% growth in share of bookings. Budget travellers are shifting away from full-service airlines in favour of value-for-money services and low airfares.
Travellers reserving with tajawal proceed to put key elements of their vacation reserving procedure even more firmly in the hands of technology with 23% of total bookings made on the cellular app and 77% via the website.

In terms of travel trends for 2020, tajawal predicts that the second city exploration will take a front seat as UAE residents forgo journeys to historically famous cities. Countries such as Macau, Russia, Japan, Thailand, Canada and the UK are presently the top trending destinations decided by using flight bookings on tajawal.