Graham Hills | ITB Asia 2016 | insights into Middle Eastern travellers and the role Asia is playing in its growing travel market

ITBAsia2016 19–21October2016,MarinaBaySands,Singapore

Insights into Middle Eastern travellers and the role Asia is playing in its growing travel

market

Graham Hills - Chief Commercial Officer, Wego.com



TheGCCmarketPopula1on GDPpercapita

SaudiArabia 28.8million $26KUnitedArabEmirates 9.3million $43KOman 3.6million $22KKuwait 3.4million $52KQatar 2.2million $94KBahrain 1.3million $25K

UnitedStates 319million $53KUnitedKingdom 64million $42KSingapore 5.4million $55KIndonesia 250million $3.4K


TheUAEhasthehighestinternetusagebycountryintheworldat96%;several

middleeastcountriesrankaboveaverage.

Currently,theGCCissecondintheworldintermsofsmartphoneshareamongmobiletransacMons.

The Middle East is online


Hello.. is it me you're looking for? “The share of mobile transactions in the GCC at 43% is 4% higher than the global average, a new study has shown. Some 86% of transactions in the Gulf Cooperation Council take place on smartphones, ranking the region No 2 worldwide, in contrast to just 14% on tablets, points out Criteo, a performance marketing technology company, in its ‘H1 2016 State of Mobile Commerce Report’.“

Online AND mobile

Gulf News, Oct 1, 2016


WhatdoesAsiaandtheMiddleEast-twovast,butverydifferent

regions,haveincommon


MENAtoAsia



Destination envy - location, location, location



World's longest flights based on distance as at June 2016

According to http://airwaysnews.com/

Ranking Carrier Route AircraR Inaugura1onDate Distance1 Emirates Auckland-Dubai Boeing777-200LR March1,2016 8,824

2 Emirates Dubai–PanamaCity Boeing777-200LR March31,2016 8,588

3 Qantas Dallas/Ft.Worth-SydneyAirbusA380 September29.2014 8,578

4 United SanFrancisco-Singapore Boeing787-900 June1,2016 8,446

5 Delta Johannesburg-Atlanta Boeing777-200LR June2,2009 8,439

6 E1had AbuDhabi–LosAngeles Boeing777-200LR June1,2014 8,390

7 Emirates Dubai–LosAngeles AirbusA380 October29,2008 8,339

8 Saudia Jeddah-LosAngeles Boeing777-300ER March31,2014 8,332

9 Qatar Doha–LosAngeles Boeing777-200LR January1,2016 8,306

10 Emirates Dubai–Houston Boeing777-300ER December1,2007 8,168


Planes on the horizon New services under consideration

EVAAir&ChinaAirlines->MiamitoTaiwan(2018)

Qantas->PerthtoLondon(2017)

SingaporeAirlines->SingaporetoLosAngelesandNewYork(2018)

QatarAirways->DohatoSanMagodeChile(unknown)

Emirates->DubaitoPanamaCity(2017)


Aviation is driving growth


MENA travel trends

When:schoolholidays,postRamadan,yearend,escapingthehotsummerWho:GCCtravellershavehigherpaxperbooking;oRentravellingwithfamily

Where:RegionaltraveldominatesbutSEAissteppingup!

*



GCCoutbound(hotels)–SEA10des1na1onsintop50

DesMnaMon Share Lengthofstay Avgbookingvalue(hotelonly)

1 Dubai 21% 4.7 $1,596

2 Istanbul 8% 7.7 $1,410

3 Cairo 6% 7.3 $1,377

4 Bahrain(Manama) 4% 2.5 $703

5 Doha 4% 3.2 $1,087

6 SharmElSheikh 3% 5.9 $950

7 Mecca 3% 3.3 $1,252

8 KualaLumpur 3% 8.3 $953

9 Jakarta 2% 7.8 $904

10KuwaitCity 2% 2.9 $896

Destination Length of stay

Avg booking value (hotel only)

13Bangkok 8.3 $1,279

19Manila 8.6 $1,031

20Bali 6.4 $1,893

21Phuket 6.9 $1,185

26Langkawi 4.1 $1,059

36Pattaya 8.3 $639

43Penang 4.3 $650

44Singapore 5.9 $2,063

Southeast Asia gems


AirlinereferralgrowthratestoAsia

Half on Half Year on Year

2015 H1 105% 321%

2015 H2 45% 198%

2016 H1 65% 140%


2015 H1 80% 333%

2015 H2 101% 261%

2016 H1 34% 169%


2015 H1 126% 453%

2015 H2 13% 156%

2016 H1 -8% 4%




Did you know....*InLebanon,youcanskiinthemorningandvisitthebeachintheaRernoon*TheUAEhasalowercrimeratethaninmanyothercountrieslikeGreatBritain,Australia,theUSA,Canada,NewZealand*Eachofthe7EmiraMsintheUAEhasitsowncoloursand.Forexample-AbuDhabi:lightred,Fujairah:darkblue/black,Dubai:red,RasAlKhaimah:white


1.Don'tbelievethestereotypes2.Traveliss1llevolving3.Getmobile,andstaymobile4.AviaMonwillseetheAsia/MiddleEastconnecMonsoar

The Middle East and Asia - Some final thoughts.


fernweh (n) An ache for distant places; the craving for travel. Fernweh is universal, may it always be with you Happy travels!