Dubai: Consumers may have cut back on some of life’s luxuries amid a subdued economic climate, but they are still determined to escape the soaring heat this summer.

Travel agents in the UAE are seeing a rise in holiday bookings for the month of June and July, with destinations offering value for money in demand.  The trend seems to coincide with the latest Dubai airport figures pointing to higher passenger numbers, reaching more than 6 million travellers in April.

The number of passengers passing through Dubai International Airport hit 6.98 million in April, up 7.2 per cent from a year ago. There’s been a lot of traffic noticed between the Dubai and Eastern Europe/Asia routes.

The figures are expected to rise further as more people are still preparing to travel this month and during the Eid holidays. “We are currently seeing a lot of leisure bookings being made primarily for the summer vacation and Eid,” Premjit Bangara, manager at Sharaf Travel, told Gulf News.

“Summer vacation bookings are for a longer period of time ranging from a week to three weeks. Eid bookings are generally made for four days to a week,” he added.

YouGov’s latest research showed that while some people are opting for a staycation during Ramadan, 43 per cent of consumers in UAE, Egypt and Saudi Arabia are planning to travel during Eid.

Of those that are traveling, 56 per cent intend to visit their home country, while 30 per cent want to travel abroad.

"Recently, Ramadan has shifted out of the holiday period and peak summer season in July and August, and now overlaps with school and exam periods for most. Moreover, nealry a quarter of respondents in the UAE specifically have also cited work commitments as one of the key reason they plan to stay in their home country. This could explain the shift in travel trends during Ramadan," Pranay Dandekar, head of consumer research at YouGov Middle East and North Africa told Gulf News.

Studies have shown that people’s spending habits have shifted a bit as a result of economic uncertainties. A research done by American Express found “little slowdown” in consumer spending in 2015, with about 18 per cent of the respondents in the UAE saying they spent less last year.

“It was apparent that many had shifted their spending to focus more on the necessities of life,” the company said.

However, residents are not cutting back on holiday spending. In fact, holidays are one of the categories in which people spend the most in the non-essential items category, according to American Express.

Bangara said the most popular destinations being booked right now are tourist destinations that offer value for money. Georgia, Armenia, Kenya, Turkey and Sri Lanka are attracting significant rise in bookings.

Other countries in Southeast Asia, such as Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong are enjoying great demand as well. In Europe,  countries like Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Italy, France and United Kingdom remain popular.

“Most people want to take a short  break during Eid and tend to favour destinations which are within a radius of five hours flying time from Dubai and are also value for money,” Bangara said.

“The most popular Eid packages being booked with us now are to Georgia, Armenia, Kenya, Sri Lanka and Turkey,” said Bangara.

“We also have bookings to Europe, US and South America along with the Far East during the summer holiday period  where expatriates and nationals  traditionally fly out during the long summer vacation to enjoy the cooler climes in these destinations. The average duration of these vacations tend to start from 10 days to three weeks .“