Emirati tourists spend big

Dubai: Emiratis spend an average of about Dh12,000 per day when holidaying abroad — with the wife usually choosing what destination to fly to, a new study has found.

The survey also shows 40-60 per cent of UAE nationals fly business class. The findings were revealed in ‘The Outbound GCC Travel Market — Unique Trends and Characteristics of GCC Nationals' report during the Arabian Travel Market Show in Dubai this week.

According to the study, Emiratis are the most frequent travellers after Saudi nationals, in whose case the male head of the household has the final say in choosing destinations.

Qataris spend the most on travel, with an average expenditure of $4,100 per day, followed by Saudis at $3,360.

The survey interviewed 2,500 Gulf nationals on their holiday travel preferences between January and December 2011.

It focused on 20 criteria like travel spend, favoured class of travel, destination-specific preferences and decision-maker identification.

The nationals were selected from a "broad demographic" pool for the research, authored by Sunil Malhotra, Senior Lecturer at Emirates Aviation College.

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