Middle east tips

Saudi Arabia launched the electronic stopover transit visa for international visitors arriving in the country by air from Monday. The transit visa entitles visa holders to stay in the kingdom for four days and the duration of the visa is three months. The visa is free of cost and it will be issued instantly along with the flight ticket, the Saudi Press Agency reported quoting sources from the foreign affairs ministry. The ministry clarified that applications for transit visas can be submitted through the electronic platforms of Saudi Arabian Airlines and Flynas. The transit visa allows transit passengers, who wish to enter Saudi Arabia to perform Umrah and visit the Prophet’s Mosque in Madinah in addition to traveling inside the kingdom, as well as attending tourism events. The ministry confirms that the digital transit visa service will contribute to achieving the objectives of Vision 2030 by strengthening Saudi’s position and benefiting from its distinguished strategic location connecting various continents, and attractive station for transit passengers as well as a global tourist destination.

Dubai received 14.36 million international overnight visitors in 2022, growing 97 percent year-on-year from the 7.28 million tourist arrivals in 2021, according to the latest data published by Dubai’s Department of Economy and Tourism. In 2019, the city had welcomed a record 16.73 million international overnight visitors. The strong performance in 2022 features some noteworthy spikes in Dubai’s traditional key markets and strong growth across emerging markets. Dubai remained a first-choice safe travel destination for visitors from the city’s stronghold markets. Western Europe and Gulf regions each accounted for a 21 percent share of arrivals. The Gulf region in particular saw an exponential increase in their share of arrivals from 13 percent in 2021 to 21 percent last year. South Asia contributed 17 percent of total volumes while the Middle East and North Africa region contributed 12 percent, further reinforcing Dubai’s continued appeal to travelers from proximity markets. The Americas accounted for seven percent of arrivals while North Asia, Southeast Asia and Africa each contributed five percent and Australasia accounted for two percent.

British actor Idris Elba thinks Dubai deserves an Oscar award for its incredible tourism story.

Dubai has yet again revealed its plans to connect the city through flying taxis and expects to launch aerial taxi operations by 2026.

The post-Covid recovery of the real estate sector in Saudi Arabia is led by increasing tourist demand and government spending on infrastructure projects such as the investment in King Salman International Airport, Deloitte noted in its latest real estate report. In 2022, both average daily rate (ADR) and occupancy improved from 2021 as market-wide recovery was supported by the ease of travel and faster visa processing for tourists, according to the report. The first three months of the year were the strongest for occupancy performance in Riyadh, reaching 76 percent in March. Meanwhile, Jeddah hotels recorded the highest occupancy performance in May at 59 percent. The facilitation of a tourist visa for Gulf residents and the visa on arrival extension to UK, U.S. and European Union residents aims to support the country’s ambition to welcome 100 million visitors a year by 2030, the global consultancy firm noted in its report.

Hotel development in the Middle East is ramping up as investors begin to see opportunity in the region again, according to Lodging Econometrics’ Middle East Construction Pipeline Trend Report. The report said new project announcements in the region continued to trend upward throughout 2022 closing the fourth quarter of 2022 with 67 new projects housing 19,837 rooms, an increase of 56 percent year-on-year. The fourth quarter also witnessed 33 new hotels accounting for 6,452 rooms open in the region. Overall, 2022 saw a record number of hotels openings with 81 hotels accounting for 17,736 rooms. Lodging Econometrics’ forecast for new hotel openings in 2023 is 123 new hotels with 30,113 rooms while 116 new hotels and 29,085 rooms are forecast to open in 2024. Countries in the Middle East with the greatest number of projects in the construction pipeline at the close of fourth quarter were Saudi Arabia with 243 projects and 67,618 rooms, followed by the United Arab Emirates with 104 projects and 29,210 rooms. Egypt came third with record high project and room counts of 87 projects and 21,672 rooms.

Italian corporate travel agency BizAway has launched a joint venture with Dubai investor Seed Group.

Despite a sluggish international travel market, the pace of recovery in the Middle East aviation market accelerated throughout 2022 and is expected to take off over the next 10 years with the region’s share of the global fleet set to expand. In its “Global Fleet and MRO Market Forecast 2023-2033,” global management consulting firm Oliver Wyman noted that the Middle East remains among the fastest-growing aviation markets in the world, with the regional fleet set to expand 5.1 percent annually over the next decade. The report further noted that the Middle East’s share of global fleet will grow over the decade from 4.9 percent in 2023 to 6 percent in 2033.  Meanwhile, the global fleet is projected to expand one-third by 2033, to well over 36,000 aircraft, with Oliver Wyman also anticipating a record number of aircraft deliveries over the next 10 years (despite current supply chain constraints). The Middle East fleet’s growth over the next decade will primarily be driven by the addition of narrow bodies. Historically, the Middle Eastern fleet has been primarily made up of widebodies. But moving forward, the report observed that narrow bodies will increase to 48 percent of the fleet from 39 percent, while wide bodies will decline to 48 percent from 56 percent.

Update: Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman announced on Sunday the launch of Riyadh Air, a new national airliner that will serve more than 100 destinations, state news agency SPA said.

Hotel development in the Middle East is heating up as investors regain confidence in the region, and it’s a competition between who is more luxurious.

Saudi Arabian auto rental firm Lumi has hired Saudi Fransi Capital and EFG Hermes to arrange the sale of 30 percent of its shares in a planned initial public offering (IPO), two sources told Reuters. The kingdom’s largest travel company Seera, which owns Lumi, won approval for the float from Saudi Arabia’s Capital Market Authority (CMA) last week. Companies that secure approval from the CMA have six months to launch their public share sale.

Good morning from Skift. It’s Wednesday, March 29. Here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.

The Middle East and Asia-Pacific regions are expected to account for 58 percent of the global air passenger demand in 2040. Aviation market intelligence CAPA — Centre for Aviation has region-wise listed the total numbers of the airport project and the volume of investment include 155 in Middle East worth $209 billion. Airports in the Middle East will need to invest $151 billion in capacity expansion as the global air passenger demand is expected to increase more than two-fold in 2040. With over 110 airports, the Middle East is already among the fastest growing in the world, accounting for 170 million of the global traffic. Close to 19.7 billion passengers are expected to traverse the world’s airports by 2040, according to the Airport Council International and the Middle East airports will handle 1.1 billion passengers by 2040 — a significant increase from 2019’s 405 million. In the United Arab Emirates, the New Sharjah International Airport expansion, with an approximate cost of $517 million, will get completed by the fourth quarter of 2024. Kuwait Airport is expanding its passenger terminal 2 to handle 13 million passengers, at an estimated cost of $4.36 billion. In Qatar, Hamad International Airport Phase 2B’s expansion work on the passenger terminal is expected to commence this year and will enhance passenger capacity to more than 60 million annually. Saudi Arabia is set to build one of the world’s largest airports which will have six parallel runways. The airport will help drive annual passenger traffic to 120 million by 2030 and 185 million by 2050.

Online travel agency Musafir is on the lookout for acquisitions to fuel growth across the Middle East and India.

Driven by the resurgence in demand for travel, Saudi Arabia-based travel services provider Seera Group reported its first yearly post-pandemic operating profit of $800,000 in 2022, compared to a loss of $76 million in 2021. This return to profit for the group for the year was mostly bolstered by Seera’s financial results for the third quarter in which the group had reported a post-pandemic operating profit of $8 million. In 2022, the group generated gross booking value of $2.5 billion, a 94 percent growth relative to the $1.3 billion recorded in 2021. Almosafer, Seera’s travel platform, which operates the consumer and business travel business lines, as well as the destination management company Discover Saudi and Hajj and Umrah tour operator Mawasim, achieved around 74 percent growth in gross booking value to $1.6 billion in 2022 compared to 2021. Almosafer noted that travel demand in 2022 surged across inbound, outbound and domestic tourism and at times, exceeded 2019 levels. With the full reopening of travel in 2022, the company noted that Almosafer’s consumer travel business saw an unprecedented surge in bookings, which led to an aggressive demand capture ahead of a full-blown travel season in 2022. Fueled by the unwavering appetite for leisure travel following the removal of nearly all pandemic travel restrictions in many countries across the world, Almosafer’s consumer business saw 2022 booking volumes exceed pre-pandemic levels. With an average of 35 percent share of booking volume, domestic tourism continued to be an important contributor to the success of the company’s consumer business. Seera also observed that the digital adoption rate for its travel management portal reached 40 percent in 2022 as companies made bookings through Almosafer Business’ digital portal. Seera continues to expand the group’s hospitality footprint nationwide, primarily in the mid-market and upper mid-market segments. Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund has also acquired a 30 percent stake in Almosafer for $412 million.

Travelers are gaining more confidence to book long-haul travel again, and many destinations in the Asia Pacific region are making a comeback. Tokyo’s neon lights and skyscrapers, Phuket’s pristine beaches, and Hanoi’s Old Quarter, with its maze of narrow streets, are among the hotspots.

Saudi Arabia has the largest hotel construction activity in the Middle East and Africa region, followed by United Arab Emirates, according to hotel research firm STR. Saudi Arabia topped the regional list with 42,033 hotel rooms, followed by United Arab Emirates with 22,324 rooms, as per March 2023 pipeline data report from STR. Most of the region’s pipeline activity is focused in the Middle East, STR said. In March, around 119,505 rooms were under construction in the Middle East and Africa, which is down 6 percent compared to March 2022. STR further noted that each of the four world regions — Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa, and the Americas — showed a year-over-year decline in hotel construction activity, with Asia Pacific coming closest to its 2022 comparable. However, the picture is more positive for the Middle East and Africa. The region has 45,529 rooms in the “final planning stage,” up 20 percent year-on-year, while the rooms in the “planning stage” have gone up to 84,116, an increase of 21.2 percent year-on-year.

The Middle East welcomed 15 percent more international tourists in the first three months of 2023 than it did for the same period in 2019, according to the UN World Tourism Organization’s latest data. 

Over 20 percent of Chinese millionaires plan to visit the Middle East in the next 12 months, according to the latest TrendLens report from luxury consulting firm Agility. The report analyzed the survey responses of 315 affluent and 216 high net-worth individuals in China in March and April this year. Those planning overseas leisure trips jumped from 50 percent in 2022 to 75 percent this year. High net-worth individuals expressed a preference for buying beauty, alcohol, watch, and jewelry products abroad in search of better deals. China’s high net-worth individuals and affluent consumers are more confident about their disposable income and investments, and spending on luxury products and experiences like tourism, according to the report. Having welcomed 989,000 Chinese tourists, China was Dubai’s fifth-largest source market in 2019. When Saudi Arabia opened to tourism in 2019, the maximum number of tourist visas issued were to Chinese tourists. More than 100,000 Chinese tourists visited Saudi Arabia in 2019. Following the resumption of outbound group tours for Chinese citizens on February 6, Middle East destinations have been wooing Chinese tourists. Dubai has been actively promoting travel-related campaigns in China and has continued to implement a visa-free policy for Chinese visitors as well as a “China Ready” strategy. With plans to welcome 4 million Chinese visitors by 2030, Saudi Arabia included China in its e-visa program and in the 96-hour stopover visa program that allows guests flying in to the country to avail a complimentary one-night hotel stay. Ahmed Issa, the tourism minister of Egypt had said this year that around 30 million Chinese tourists are interested in visiting Egypt over the next few years. China’s largest online travel agency Trip.com Group has also signed an agreement with Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Abu Dhabi to promote these destinations. Speaking at the Skift Global Forum East in Dubai last year, Trip.com’s Chief Operating Officer, Schubert Lou, said old marketing strategies would not work on the new Chinese traveler. 

Good morning from Skift. It’s Wednesday, May 31. Here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.

Habitas, a luxury travel lodging and experiences company, may add up to six properties in Saudi Arabia through a planned $400 million (1.5 billion riyals) fund with financial support from the kingdom’s investment community.