Since the easing of travel restrictions in Dubai, a change of scenery seems to have been on the minds of UAE nationals and residents.
Flight and hotel searches on travel meta-search engine Wego shot up after Dubai announced that travel would be allowed out of the country from June 23.
“Following the announcement of the lifting of travel restrictions in the UAE, we saw an uplift in searches for flights and hotels," said Mamoun Hmedan, managing director of Wego for Mena and India.
Between Monday, June 22 and Sunday, June 28, the search engine recorded more than 352,000 flight searches from UAE users. That equates to a 10 per cent growth, week on week, in flight and hotel searches from people based in the UAE.
"Following the announcement of the lifting of travel restrictions in the UAE, we saw an uplift in searches for flights and hotels"
Perhaps unsurprisingly, one of the most searched for destinations by UAE users was very close to home. Wego recorded a big increase in searches for hotel stays across the emirates.
In terms of global travel, UAE trip-planners are mostly searching for flight bookings to Egypt. The African country is set to reopen to commercial flights from July 1 and travellers can avail of free tourism visas upon arrival for visiting some of Egypt’s resort destinations.
India, the Philippines, Turkey and Sudan rounded up the top five global countries that UAE residents are keen to visit. However, it is likely that several of these searches were made by residents looking to repatriate as India and the Philippines are currently closed to tourists. Morocco, Jordan and Lebanon are the next most in-demand destinations.
“Travellers are eager to travel and are planning for their next holiday, with most of them looking to book a vacation back home or a family trip,” said Hmedan.
Most people searching for flights on Wego from the UAE seem to be planning to travel for longer periods of time, rather than for short breaks. The average duration of trips searched on the site were for stays lasting from 7 to 14 days.
Staying close to home
Domestic travel has also seen a boost in demand as movement restrictions across the UAE have eased. The Emirates ranked number one in the top five Mena destinations searched for by UAE-based travellers on Wego.
This rise in domestic tourism is seen as “the first step towards the revival of the tourism industry,” said Hmedan.
Following the UAE, the hottest Mena destinations searched for by UAE users were Egypt, Morocco, Jordan, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia.
More destinations set to rise in popularity
As travel restrictions ease in more countries around the world, new destinations are likely to rise in popularity with UAE-based holidaymakers.
The Maldives is reopening to tourists from Wednesday, July 15 and could well see a spike in interest with travellers from Dubai. Its proximity, just four hours from the UAE, plus Emirates's recent announcement that it will resume flights to the Indian Ocean archipelago on Tuesday, July 16 look set to work well for the country's tourism.
According to hotelier Sonu Shivdasani, founder of Maldivian retreats Soneva Fushi and Soneva Jani, summer bookings at both luxury resorts are higher this year compared to the same time last year.
“From the Middle East, we’ve had lots of enquiries coming in. We expect we’ll get a lot of people travelling here from the UAE who would normally go to London for the summer. We’ve had a lot of interest already for bookings for the end of July,” explained Shivdasani.
Residents planning to fly out of Dubai must apply for permission before doing so. Passengers should submit an online form to Dubai's immigration service to obtain an approval number that will be needed to book flights out of the country.
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Islamophobia definition
A widely accepted definition was made by the All Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims in 2019: “Islamophobia is rooted in racism and is a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness.” It further defines it as “inciting hatred or violence against Muslims”.
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UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, Leon.
Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.
Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
Europe's top EV producers
- Norway (63% of cars registered in 2021)
- Iceland (33%)
- Netherlands (20%)
- Sweden (19%)
- Austria (14%)
- Germany (14%)
- Denmark (13%)
- Switzerland (13%)
- United Kingdom (12%)
- Luxembourg (10%)
Source: VCOe
