UAE warned of five-year drop in tourism spend

International arrivals into the UAE will grow over the next five years while the average spend will decline, according to research presented at Reed Travel Exhibition's Arabian Travel Market.

Delegates at the WTM Vision Conference – Dubai saw exclusive research, presented by Euromonitor International, which found that arrivals into the UAE will see a compound annual growth rate in excess of 7% per annum over the next five years.

But over the same period, average spend per visitor will decline by over 3%.

Other destinations in the region showed a similar trend, Saudi Arabia will see visitor arrivals grow by 10% a year until 2016, with the average spend declining by around 4% a year.

Hotel prices across budget, mid and luxury hotels in the MENA region fell in 2010/11, with budget hotels seeing the biggest drop. MENA was the only region where hotel prices declined.

Senior travel executives were also told that the UAE was the third most visited destination by Indian travellers, giving it an important foothold with one of the world’s fastest-growing economies.

Euromonitor International's Travel Industry Global Overview Report showed that consumers will still travel despite economic concerns, but are looking at value for money options.

Globally, arrivals growth will slow down to around 4% a year between 2011 and 2016 and average spend will grow by 1% from 2012.