The post Aviasales reports surge in travel from Central Asia to GCC at Phocuswright WiT Middle East 2024 appeared first on TD (Travel Daily Media) Travel Daily Media.
Representative Image
Aviasales, the metasearch travel platform, presented compelling data at the recent Phocuswright WiT Middle East 2024 conference showing a significant increase in travel activity between Central Asian states and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. This increase highlights growing economic and cultural ties between the two regions and aligns with strategic policy enhancements and tourism growth.
In 2023, travel searches for Middle East & North African (MENA) destinations from Central Asian countries increased by 61%, with bookings up 45% year-on-year, according to data from the Aviasales platform – when compared with data from 2022.
Uzbekistan: searches up 83%, bookings up 50%, with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) accounting for 86% of this activity.
Kazakhstan: searches rose by 24%, bookings by 36%, with 91% going to the UAE.
Kyrgyzstan: searches increased by 146%, bookings by 72%, with 87% going to the UAE.
Furthermore, Aviasales highlighted at the conference that the upcoming ‘Arab Schengen’ programme will further boost these interactions by allowing 30-day visa-free stays in the Gulf countries. For example, since February 2024 Uzbek citizens have already been allowed to visit the UAE without a visa, which is likely to increase the frequency of travel this year.
Meanwhile the recent introduction of new air routes, such as Jazeera Airways’ Al Kuwait-Fergana service and the doubling of Qatar Airways’ flights between Doha and Almaty, are key to boosting business and tourism links.
At a diplomacy level the GCC-Central Asia Dialogue has underlined the commitment to reinvigorate economic and investment ties, with a focus on infrastructure, tourism and energy. With the GCC expected to outperform global economic trends through diversification, the outlook for 2024 and beyond remains promising.
Anton Baitsur, CEO of Aviasales commented: “These very encouraging figures not only reflects an important trend likely to continue but underlines our key role at Aviasales as the leading online player in Central Asia and fostering these growing ties. We strongly recommend that GCC based hotels, airlines, tour operators and incoming businesses develop more services aimed at Central Asian audiences and consider focusing sales and marketing efforts on the source market.”
The post Aviasales reports surge in travel from Central Asia to GCC at Phocuswright WiT Middle East 2024 appeared first on Travel Daily Media.
