Tourism boards across the globe are setting their sights on Middle Eastern travelers, especially those from UAE and Saudi Arabia. Profiled as liberal spenders and long stay tourists, middle-eastern travelers are sought after because they pump money into their respective host economies.

Emirates Business reports latest Q12010 as showing countries such as France, Seychelles, Thailand, and Singapore as already experiencing positive inflows of tourists from these regions. The World Tourism Organization (WTO) additionally forecasts sizeable outbound tourism from the Middle East, projecting as many as 35 million middle-eastern tourists flying out to international destinations by 2020.

This raises the region's market share in this category to 2.2 per cent compared to 1.5 per cent in 1995. WTO statistics also point to a spending of $20 billion (Dh73.4bn) on outbound travel from the Middle East region by 2020. The GCC alone represents around 60% of this market. By 2020, the most important growth will come from the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Egypt and Lebanon. Hoping to profit from this trend, countries like Greece, along with Korea, Nepal, India, SriLanka and Nigeria, have already intensied their tourism initiatives in the region, including participation in events like the Arabian Travel Market and the Riyadh Travel Exhibition.

Local travel agents we spoke to confirm this trend, stating their mid to high income group Saudi clientele spend up to 40% more than other nationalities, ranging between Aed35,000/- to Aed45,000/- for average families on a 45 day vacation, to Aed100,000/- for the auent high net-worth clients, while other nationalities’ budgets stretch to a maximum of Aed25,000/-. Among singles, the disparity in vacation spend, Aed10, 000/- to Aed15, 000/- per trip is very comparable to that of other nationalities, underscoringthe focus of international travelbureaus on ‘family travelers’ from Saudis.

To London with Love

Despite industry fears, the Saudi penchant for London is not abating. While there has been a decrease in numbers to other European and US destinations, the number of Saudis who visited Britain in 2009 exhibited a signicant increase, according to the country's National Tourist Board. "In 2009, some 94,000 people from the Kingdom visited the United Kingdom, compared to 80,000 during the previous year," said Visit Britain's Chief Executive Sandie Dawe, as cited in Zawya.com.

the Saudi penchant for London is not abating

She also claimed that Saudis spent over £200 million last year, while overseas residents made 31.9 million visits to the UK in 2008. Speaking to our target audience, we found that a larger majority of Singles Climbers favored the London destination, not only for its liberalized way of life, but also for the cultural heritage it has to offer tourists. Many Climbers also cited it to be more cosmopolitan and Arab-friendly as compared to other European destinations with relatively lesser language barriers.Though the Homemakers also expressed a love for the city, there is a clear preference for the US when speaking of destinations in the West, citing wholesome ‘family fun’ opportunities available in the US along with ample ‘affordable’ shopping options,as reasons.