Mobile booking - or booking travel over the web using a smartphone - currently one of the biggest emerging trends in the travel sector in Europe and US, has been branded nothing more than a "ship in the horizon" for consumers in the Middle East.
Omar Ahmad, CEO of online travel company Joob.com said despite the fact that the Middle East has the biggest mobile phones usage in the world, there were "too many barriers" to using mobiles to book travel.
"Mobiles are used here for research not for commerce due to the payment limitations," said Ahmad. "It's still a ship in the horizon in this region. As an online company it's better for us to focus on e-commerce than on mobile as there are too many barriers for mobiles.
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"Will you be buying your next holiday while sitting in a coffee shop?" he added. "Probably not."
Nazur Musa, managing partner of Gulf Reps agreed that cost was a major barrier in the region to using smart phones to book travel: "It's expensive. The downloading speeds and costs in this part of the world are too expensive, so until costs are lowered you won't be able to book a flight via a mobile."
Dan Stewart, CEO and Co-Founder, Gonabit which has recently launched a dedicated travel channel Gonabit Getaways also hit out at the lack of payment gateways in the Middle East calling them "five years behind global standards."
"The biggest struggle is the non-availability or lack of payment gateways in the region here. The payment gateways we have work well for what they do but they are not flexible. If you deal with the banks here and you say you are a website they don’t have time for you."
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