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Outbound travel, this year, started off extremely early with the FIFA World Cup currently underway in Russia. Various travel monitors reported that Russia has been receiving a very good inflow of traffic from the GCC due to the games. Whilst the majority of locals and even expats follow the games, Dubai has turned into a game zone altogether with various travel companies organising packages for the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Concurrently, travellers are also exploring new destinations that are more suited for families. For the past two years, Georgia and Armenia did hold on as the new destinations, but this year there is a whole new range of areas that are promoting their destinations to the clientele of the Middle East region.

As Turkey seeks to open its new airport later on this year, they have earmarked this year as the year of Troy. Popular mainly due to the movie and of course for the legend itself, Turkey is attracting more visitors especially from the United Arab Emirates. Montenegro is another destination which has taken over from the likes of Georgia and Armenia, scoring a good number of tourist arrivals from the Middle East region. Japan’s Kyoto has become another new outbound favourite, especially among the locals from the GCC with an influx of visitors from the United Arab Emirates. Latvia, Rwanda and Finland are others on the board this year for the Middle East region.

Although one would find travellers from GCC glued to Russia for outbound for the next few weeks, they have already made plans from beyond the point of Russia and the World Cup. It is refreshing to see the new areas develop with many Muslim-friendly facilities in each destination. The world prefers the clientele from the Middle East due to their high spending capability for enabling economic growth in any destination.

So come summer with new destinations that are set to define the new traveller seeking adventure, exploring diversification of cultures and engaging in various activities.