The United Arab Emirates and other Gulf countries are counting on an increase in tourist flow from Europe.
Dubai, UAE. The growth of tourist flow from the EU to the Gulf countries will grow by 17% by 2020, according to the forecast of the international analytical company Colliers International.
The growth is spurred by an increase in the number of direct flights, competitive prices for travel services and an increase in the number of hotels in the middle price category, the study notes.
Thus, in the period from 2018 to 2020, over 26 million European tourists will visit the Gulf countries - 4 million more than in the period from 2015 to 2017. At the same time, 81% of them will be attracted by the UAE and Saudi Arabia.
In particular, the UAE expects to attract 14.5 million tourists, Saudi Arabia - 5.4 million, Oman - 2.21 million tourists. If before European tourists were attracted only by the most luxurious resorts, in recent years there has grown a generation of millennials who prefer budget vacations, the report also says.
It is worth noting that Flydubai operates several low-cost flights to Central and Eastern Europe, in particular, to Belgrade, Bratislava, Budapest, Prague, Skopje, Sarajevo and Sofia - in only 24 directions.
