Many UAE residents are either skipping or shortening visits to their home countries and instead opting to fly to new long-haul tourist destinations that were previously unaffordable, thanks to low-cost airlines expanding their networks to such popular places.
The UAE budget carriers have recently added several long-haul popular tourist routes across Southeast Asia and Western Europe to their networks, going beyond a five-hour flight radius.
Sharjah-based Air Arabia recently announced the launch of a service to Vienna, Austria, later this year, selling one-way tickets to Vienna for only Dh399. The local carrier has also launched its service to Athens (Greece), Krakow (Poland) and (Phuket). In addition, Wizz Air and Air Arabia Abu Dhabi have also been expanding their network.
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Shamsheed CV, senior consultant for outbound travel at Wisefox Tourism, said people are not travelling much to their home countries during holidays this time.
“Earlier, people used to travel to their home country at the end of June and then return in August (2-month summer break). Since fares are skyrocketing to home destinations, residents travel for two to three weeks in the middle of summer vacations and return before August 10 when airfares are minimal.
“Residents nowadays travel and explore new destinations instead of flying to home countries. They try to explore other destinations during summer break,” he added.
Low-cost airlines’ launch of new popular destinations at affordable rates now encourages many budget-conscious families to explore these new popular tourist destinations rather than going to their home countries.
“Travellers’ pool is growing as middle-class families, who previously limited their trips to home countries, are now questioning the need to spend Dh2,000-Dh2,200 for these visits. Many are using the same budget to explore new and popular tourist destinations that were beyond their reach (financially),” explained Raheesh Babu, COO of musafir.com.
“Also, people used to travel once a year; now they can travel twice with the launch of new destinations by budget carriers. People’s approach is changing with more people travelling,” he added.