Middle East-based online travel marketplace Wego has acquired corporate travel platform Travelstop as part of its expansion into business travel and expense management.
25.08.2023 - 13:11 / skift.com / United Airlines / Rashaad Jorden / Peden Doma Bhutia
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Singapore has overtaken Japan as the country with the world’s most powerful passport while the U.S. dropped two spots in recently released rankings, writes Travel Experiences Reporter Selene Brophy.
Citizens of Singapore have visa-free access to 190 destinations, according to the Henley Passport Index. The Index ranks the world’s passports by the number of destinations their holders can travel to without needing a visa. The U.S. passport is now tied with Lithuania for the world’s 8th most powerful, providing visa-free access to 184 destinations.
Brophy notes the U.S. has seen a decade-long decline in passport power. A U.S. passport currently provides visa-free access to 12 more destinations than it did in 2013. Meanwhile, a Singaporean passport has obtained visa-free access to 25 more destinations over the past 10 years.
Next, United Airlines is moving to take advantage of the Asia-Pacific region’s booming travel demand. The Chicago-based carrier unveiled on Tuesday three new routes serving the region, writes Reporter Jess Wade.
Wade reports those routes will include direct flights from San Francisco to Manila as well from Los Angeles to Hong Kong and Tokyo-Narita. United will also become the only U.S. airline to fly nonstop to Manila. A company executive said demand for transpacific travel is as strong, if not stronger, than transatlantic travel. Wade notes that the new routes, which start service in October, will result in United’s transpacific network being 50% larger than all other U.S. airlines combined.
Finally, Thailand is increasingly targeting the Middle East as a major source market for tourism. Thai authorities aim to attract 400,000 visitors from the region this year, reports Asia Editor Peden Doma Bhutia in Skift’s Middle East Travel Roundup.
Bhutia writes Saudi Arabia is expected to surpass the United Arab Emirates as Thailand’s largest market. Thailand anticipates welcoming 150,000 visitors from Saudi Arabia this year following the resumption of direct flights between the two countries. Saudi Arabia accounted for a little more than a quarter of the visitors from the Middle East to Thailand in the first half of 2023.
A Thai official said flight schedules between Thailand and the Middle East are currently 80% of pre-Covid levels. The Thai push to increase visitor numbers from the Middle East comes as Thailand expects tourist numbers from China, a major market for the country, to fall short of projections.
Middle East-based online travel marketplace Wego has acquired corporate travel platform Travelstop as part of its expansion into business travel and expense management.
A shift towards experiential journeys, growing demand for premium travel options – Indians approach to travel is evolving, according to Mukul Sukhani, senior vice president of business development at Mastercard.
In addition to booming tourism numbers worldwide, travelers this summer have experienced scorching temperatures. That blistering heat has made travel difficult and could potentially create chronic health problems.
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China’s latest loosening of its stringent zero-Covid policy, mostly for domestic tourism, comes across as too little too late, at a time when the rest of the world is living with the virus.
The Middle East is leading international travel recovery in the fourth quarter as inbound arrivals to the region witnessed an increase of 4 percent, long ahead of the global average of a decrease of 30 percent, according to travel analytics firm ForwardKeys. “The FIFA World Cup is certainly the key driver for its travel recovery,” said Juan Gomez, head of market intelligence at ForwardKeys. The latest air ticketing data by ForwardKeys also shows that international arrival levels may be back to normal in 2023, with travel to the Middle East up by 15 percent on pre-pandemic levels in the first quarter. Overall, the outlook for 2023 looks promising, despite high inflation in key source markets and the looming recession, FowardKeys noted. The Middle East is also attracting more premium travellers than in 2019, the travel analytics firm noted with Saudi Arabia showing the greatest growth. Qatar, Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon are also showing growth, with a regional average of 11 percent above 2019.
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India is making a PCR Covid test mandatory for inbound arrivals from China, Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, Japan, and South Korea, from January 1.
An innkeeper in Bangkok’s Sathorn area has been desperately looking to hire more staff to cater to the increasing number of tourists at his place.
Indian carrier Vistara reported its first-ever net profit for the quarter ending December 2022, according to statement from the airline on Monday.
Online travel agency Trip.com Group hopes that cross-border travel capacity for China will be back to normal by the third quarter of this year.
India is projected to surpass a rapidly aging China as the world’s most populous country this year, a development that Skift founder and CEO Rafat Ali and Senior Research Analyst Seth Borko said would have enormous implications for the travel industry during the Skift Megatrends event in New York City on January 10.