{"id":156249,"date":"2023-04-21T23:46:49","date_gmt":"2023-04-21T23:46:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/culture.org\/?p=156249"},"modified":"2023-04-21T23:46:49","modified_gmt":"2023-04-21T23:46:49","slug":"eco-friendly-luxury-travel-on-the-rise-in-the-middle-east","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/culture.org\/travel\/eco-friendly-luxury-travel-on-the-rise-in-the-middle-east\/","title":{"rendered":"Eco-Friendly Luxury Travel on the Rise in the Middle East"},"content":{"rendered":" <!-- <script type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n jQuery(document).ready(function() {\r\n jQuery(\".key-accordion-item .key-menu\").on(\"click\", function() {\r\n if (jQuery(this).parent().hasClass(\"active\")) {\r\n jQuery(this).next().slideUp();\r\n jQuery(this).parent().removeClass(\"active\");\r\n } else {\r\n jQuery(\".key-content\").slideUp();\r\n jQuery(\".key-accordion-item\").removeClass(\"active\");\r\n jQuery(this).parent().addClass(\"active\");\r\n jQuery(this).next().slideDown();\r\n }\r\n });\r\n })\r\n <\/script> -->\r\n\r\n\r\n <!-- start html -->\r\n\r\n <div class=\"news-key-takeaway-wapper\">\r\n <span style=\"background-color:#9259b9;\">Key Takeaways<\/span>\r\n <ul class=\"news-key-nbox\" style=\"border-color:#9259b9;background-color:rgba(146, 89, 185, 0.1);\">\r\n <li>Middle Eastern luxury travel is increasingly focusing on sustainability, with affluent travelers showing a growing preference for sustainable luxury hotel stays.<\/li>\r\n <li>Authenticity is becoming more popular, with high-income travelers seeking genuine and impactful experiences and willing to pay more for private, secluded accommodations.<\/li>\r\n <li>Qatar has revamped its visa process through the Hayya platform to simplify tourist and business visa applications and ease tourist access to the country.<\/li>\r\n <li>The Middle East and North Africa region saw a surge in air ticket searches during Ramadan, with top destinations including Turkey, India, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Qatar, and Jordan.<\/li>\r\n <li>Hilton plans to expand its Saudi Arabian portfolio to over 75 hotels across multiple brands in the upcoming years, indicating continued growth in the region's luxury travel sector.<\/li>\r\n <\/ul>\r\n <\/div>\r\n \n<p> <\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Middle Eastern luxury travel, particularly in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), is witnessing an increasing focus on sustainability.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">YouGov’s Global Travel and Tourism Whitepaper 2023 reveals that 61% of UAE residents are ready to pay extra for environmentally friendly, sustainable tourism experiences.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Over the past three years, luxury green accommodations have seen a 10% increase in consumer preference, with sustainable luxury hotel stays among affluent travelers growing by 50%.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Valuing Authenticity in Travel<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In addition to the rising emphasis on sustainable travel, the quest for authentic experiences is also becoming more popular.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Post-pandemic, 51% of high-income travelers are searching for genuine and impactful experiences, with 27% ready to pay more for private, secluded accommodations.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Middle East has successfully built an international reputation for luxury tourism, with regional consumers appreciating unique, unforgettable, and eco-conscious experiences.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Qatar Streamlines Visa Process through Hayya Platform<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Qatar Tourism has revamped the Hayya platform to simplify the country’s tourist visa process. The platform now serves as a unified portal for all tourist and business visas to Qatar, consolidating applications for tourists, Gulf residents, and their companions.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Hayya platform played a pivotal role in granting entry to over a million visitors during the FIFA World Cup last year and aims to ease tourist access to Qatar.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Ramadan Sparks Increase in Flight Searches<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Wingie, a flight search platform, experienced a 300% surge in air ticket searches in the Middle East and North Africa region since Ramadan’s beginning.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the days leading to Eid-al-Fitr, 75% of travelers booked international flights, with solo travelers making 82% of the bookings.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Top destinations included Turkey, India, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Qatar, and Jordan.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Saudi Arabian Airlines and Flyadeal Broaden Their Reach<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Saudia and flyadeal, Saudi Arabia’s airlines, intend to add 25 new destinations to the Saudia Group Network in 2023.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These locations cover various countries, such as China, the UK, Turkey, France, Africa, Greece, and parts of Europe.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This expansion responds to the growing demand for international travel.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2> <!-- <div class=\"container-c\"> -->\r\n <!-- <div class=\"row justify-content-between\"> -->\r\n <!-- <div class=\"col-post-800\"> -->\r\n <!-- start html -->\r\n <div class=\"blockquote-wapper\">\r\n <div>\r\n <span class=\"text_quot\">\r\n <p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Qatar Tourism has revamped the Hayya platform to simplify the country’s tourist visa process. The platform now serves as a unified portal for all tourist and business visas to Qatar, consolidating applications for tourists, Gulf residents, and their companions.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span>\r\n\r\n <div class=\"quot_icon\">\r\n <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-content\/themes\/culture\/icons\/i_quot.svg\" type=\"image\/svg+xml\">\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n\r\n <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"quot_tick\" src=\"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-content\/themes\/culture\/icons\/i_quot_tri.svg\" type=\"image\/svg+xml\">\r\n <\/div>\r\n <!-- end html -->\r\n <!-- <\/div> -->\r\n <!-- <\/div> -->\r\n <!-- <\/div> -->\r\n <\/h2>\n<h2><strong>Corporate Travel Set to Surpass Pre-Pandemic Levels<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Cvent Travel Manager Report states that most travel managers across Asia, Australia, and the Middle East and Africa anticipate corporate travel volumes in 2023 to exceed pre-pandemic levels.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The report highlights the significance of sustainability in venue selection and encourages hotels to display their distinct facilities, unique selling points, and sustainability initiatives to attract corporate travel buyers.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Top Destinations for UAE Travelers During Eid<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Wego, an online travel marketplace, identified India, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Thailand as favored destinations for UAE travelers during Eid vacations.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India took the top spot, followed by Egypt, with UAE residents also exploring their own country, which ranked third.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Hilton’s Growth in Saudi Arabia<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hilton declared the signing of a management agreement for a new hotel in Jeddah, owned by Alahli Reit Fund and managed by SNB Capital.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The hotel company plans to expand its Saudi Arabian portfolio to over 75 hotels across multiple brands in the upcoming years.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><strong>In Summary<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Middle East’s luxury travel sector is undergoing a significant transformation towards sustainable and authentic experiences.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With the growing importance of sustainability in travel, this trend is likely to continue in the region, presenting new possibilities for tourism providers to cater to environmentally aware, luxury-seeking travelers.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":156250,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[408],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-156249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156249"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156249\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/156250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/culture.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}