Middle East and Africa traveller and shopper trends revealed in latest m1nd-set research

29.08.2023 - 08:55 / traveldailynews.com / Theodore Koumelis

Travel and tourism in the Middle East and Africa region, the focus of another recent region-specific research study by m1nd-set, is experiencing a robust revival, according to the Swiss travel and travel retail research agency.

The region will see international departure traffic for the Middle East and Africa combined fall just 6% short of 2019 levels, according to m1nd-set’s Business 1ntelligence Service (B1S) air traffic and forecasting tool, with traffic data provided by IATA. International departures for the Middle East alone already surpassed the 2019 level in Q1 this year. In Africa, air traffic was at around 88% of the same period in 2019 in Q1 2023.

In terms of airports and nationalities in the Middle East & Africa region, based on traffic data for the first 5 months of 2023, Dubai is the clear frontrunner in the region according to m1nd-set. Dubai Airports will see around 40 million international departures this year, based on historic data between January and May this year and forecast traffic for the rest of the year. Doha is in second place with 20 million and Jeddah and Tel Aviv in joint third place with 12 million departures. Cairo and Abu Dhabi share fifth place with an estimated 9 million passengers in 2023. Kuwait, Riyadh, Sharjah and Addis Ababa complete the top 10 airports for international departures with between
6 and 8 million international departures.

The traffic data within the research reveals that Indians account for the highest number of international travellers when comparing the top nationalities departing on international flights across the region. The B1S data shows 21 million departing passengers in 2023. Egypt follows with 16 million and Saudi Arabia completes the top 3 with 14 million passengers departing internationally. Pakistan and Israel follow in joint fourth position with 9 million departing passengers. France, the UK, Morocco, Bangladesh and Ethiopia complete the top 10 ranking for
nationalities departing internationally across the Middle East and Africa, showing the very diverse composition of the traveller mix across the region.

The shopping behaviour analysis in the research shows that Perfumes and Confectionery were the two most visited categories in H1 2023 in airports across the Middle East and Africa. The m1nd-set research also shows that while Perfumes is still the number one visited category in the region, Perfumes visitors have fallen quite significantly, from 49% to 41%, between the pre-pandemic era from 2017 – H1 this year.

Confectionery on the other hand has seen a strong increase in visitors to the category in 2023 compared to pre-Covid, with a 4% increase in visitors, up from 30% to 34%. Confectionery is also among the top 4 categories