BUSINESS

Wego reveals ‘MENA Traveller Destination Leaderboards’

Egypt and Saudi Arabia remain constant at #1 and #2 destinations overall

April 26, 2018

WEGO revealed for the first time, the “MENA Traveller Destination Leaderboards” that showcased the relative popularity of global destinations amongst travellers based in the MENA region. As the largest online travel marketplace across the MENA region, Wego users shop for tens of millions of trips each quarter and it’s this flight and hotel search data that has been analyzed to determine the destination rankings. The leaderboard announced at the ATM is for Q1 2018 and subsequent updates will be released shortly after the close of each quarter.

Global Destination Leaderboard

Egypt retains its No. 1 ranking in Q1 2018 as the most popular destination for travelers, from across the MENA region with the Egyptian capital of Cairo leading the way as the most searched destination overall. “MENA travelers are lured by the culture, scenic attractions, and incredible food that can be experienced in Egypt but we also see large volumes of traffic from the business and expatriate sectors,” said Mamoun Hmedan, Wego managing director MENA and India.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia retains its No. 2 ranking and received a steady mix of business, expatriate and religious travel. There has also been an increase in domestic travel intent in 2018, possibly due to increased activities by SCTA and the new Entertainment Authority. With the Kingdom increasingly interested in promoting tourism, both domestically and from around the region, it will be interesting to watch the evolving dynamics in the years ahead.

India at No. 3 and Turkey at No. 4 stepped up 1 rung each in the destination leaderboard for Q1 2018 vs Q1 2017, while of UAE fell from No. 3 to No. 5. Despite the overall drop, Dubai remains a popular destination for MENA travelers and, as a methodological note, we’ll break it out in future releases of the MENA Traveller Destination Leaderboards.

The biggest gainer in Q1 2018 was Oman which jumped a massive 9 places to No. 15, an improvement likely related to the opening of a new airport in Muscat and a host of new hotels and other facilities opening in the Sultanate. Oman’s national carrier, Oman Air, also now offers the most convenient way to get from and to Doha from a range of countries.

The biggest decline can be seen for Malaysia, which is down 6 places to No. 16 from No. 10 in Q1 2017. Last year saw a major decrease in tourist arrivals from KSA and UAE due to a confluence of increased competition from Turkey, Azerbaijan and Georgia. Reduced promotional budgets from Malaysia’s side can also be a contributory factor. Since, Arabs are known to be the biggest spenders in the country, Tourism Malaysia is actively trying to reverse the trend by making the visa process easier and ramping up advertising budgets.

The United Kingdom remains the No. 1 European destination for MENA travelers in Q1 2018 and London continues as the most visited city in Europe thanks to its exciting winter activities, awe-inspiring historical sites, museums and so much more.

Notebaly, Wego recently partnered with VisitBritain, to promote destinations across the UK to travelers in MENA and as a result there has been a very significant surge in interest and sales.

Germany remains steady as the second most popular destination in Europe for MENA based travelers. It is popular with football lovers, for medical tourism and also as a major travel hub and jumping off point to other countries in Europe.

Azerbaijan has seen a significant uptick in interest with MENA travelers in 2018 and is now ranked No. 3 up from No. 5 a year ago. The country even overtook the tourism mega-destination France — now at No. 4. Neighboring country, Georgia, is also seeing a strong tourism growth from the MENA region.

With the FIFA World Cup 2018 in Russia rapidly approaching, a tsunami of searches by football-lovers has helped push Russia up seven places to rank as the No. 10 destination in Europe and former USSR. Football mania in the Middle East is peaking with a historically unprecedented four countries from the region qualifying for the final stage of the competition.

MENA Destination Leaderboard

In terms of destinations within the MENA region, Turkey and the UAE have swapped places as have Jordan and Morocco, since Q1 of 2017.

Bustling street markets, easy access to halal food, short flight durations and cultural familiarity are all reasons why Turkey remains consistently popular as a destination with MENA travelers.

Amman, Jordan emerged as the biggest winner amongst Middle Eastern cities with a spike in visitors in 2018 possibly attributed to the launch of the new Jordan trail and other new tourism boosting initiatives. Morocco is probably down on account of the unrest in Casablanca in the last quarter of 2017.

As previously noted Oman is the biggest gainer within the region; while Bahrain is down a couple rungs but holding onto the No. 10 spot in the table and narrowly avoiding being ousted from the leaderboard.

Asia Pacific Destination Leaderboard

Philippines and Indonesia continue as the most popular destinations for MENA based travelers in the Asia Pacific region but have swapped places with each other in 2018 vs 2017. Both destinations receive a mix of expatriate and leisure tourists from the region, with the tropical beach destinations of Bali and Boracay remaining perpetual favorites with Wego users.

Thailand has held constant as the No. 12 ranked destination for MENA travelers globally despite unresolved diplomatic issues with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; and has climbed above Malaysia to become the No. 3 destination within the Asia Pacific region.

Malaysia has fallen a massive 6 spots from No. 10 in Q1 2017 to only No. 16 in 2018 as a result of increased competition from Muslim-friendly destinations such as Turkey, Georgia and Azerbaijan, which also benefit from shorter flying times and increased airline capacity. Tourism Malaysia’s reduced MENA promotion in 2016 and 2017 has also likely put a damper of things but the new VFS visa service centers in KSA should help boost tourism going forwards

Wego, which provides award winning travel search websites and top ranked mobile apps for travelers living in the Asia Pacific and Middle East regions, harnesses powerful yet simple to use technology that automates the process of searching and comparing results from hundreds of airline, hotel and online travel agency websites.

Wego presents an unbiased comparison of all travel products and prices offered in the marketplace by merchants, both local and global, and enables shoppers to quickly find the best deal and place to book whether it is from an airline or hotel directly or with a third-party aggregator website.

Wego was founded in 2005 and is headquartered in Dubai and Singapore with regional operations in Bangalore, Jakarta and Cairo. — SG


April 26, 2018
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