DOHA: Travel and tourism trade sources say they expect a 10 percent growth in air bookings for tourist destinations in the upcoming summer months.
They also believe that the favourite tourist destinations of citizens would remain unchanged from last year since the situation in the region hasn’t improved.
The long summer break this year could be divided into two parts — for the expatriate communities and for citizens.
Ramadan begins at the start of the summer vacation this year, so most expatriates would want to spend their annual vacation in their home countries.
Therefore, there is too much rush for bookings especially for destinations in South Asia, South East Asia and the Arab world.
The second part of the summer vacation is related to Qatari citizens who might spend only part of their vacation abroad.
Some of them will go on vacation before Ramadan and others might postpone it after Eid Al Fitr, a tour operator said.
So booking for tourist destinations is very slow because families are now planning and have yet to fix travel dates and decide on their favourite destinations.
Since the holy month of Ramadan is dividing the annual vacation into two parts, holiday-makers will have only a maximum of 25 days before or after Ramadan.
Short destinations of travellers will be GCC countries and long destinations would be to European countries. However, they will head to US and Asian countries after Eid Al Fitr.
Arab countries witnessing violence are out of the list of favourite destination for Qatari citizens and Turkey emerged as an alternative destination for Arab states, said another manager of a travel agency.
However, the European countries including, London, Paris and Germany are in the top of the favourite destination list of citizens, he added.
The roadmap for foreign tourism destinations could not be specified exactly at this moment as airlines did not disclose its summer flights schedules.
The schedule may be announced after the event of Arab Travel Industry that will start on May 6 in Dubai.
The Peninsula
