RISE OF THE WORKING HOLIDAY PRESENTS OPPORTUNITIES FOR UAE HOTELIERS
▶ Industry figures at Arabian Travel Market say flexible working born out of the pandemic is behind the ‘workcation’
Hoteliers in the UAE and the wider region are reporting a surge in long-term bookings – as guests mix work and play during their holidays.
Experts at the Arabian Travel Market international trade show, held at the Dubai World Trade Centre, told The National yesterday that employees are taking advantage of the flexible work culture that evolved during the pandemic.
Opting to combine business and pleasure this summer is leading to UAE residents spending longer abroad and travellers to the Emirates extending their stays here.
This comes despite rising flight prices on the back of high travel demand and fuel costs.
“We are seeing lot more people booking ‘workcations’ this summer,” said Caroline Jonsson, Radisson Hotels’ communication manager for the Middle East.
“They will be spending longer than they usually would on their summer vacation but that’s because they will be combining it with work.
“Companies are much more flexible than they were before the pandemic about trusting their staff to work remotely.”
She said people were feeling pent up, after not being able to travel far during the pandemic.
This had added to the desire to take longer holidays now that restrictions were easing in many countries.
A report from travel company Wego found there had been a significant jump in the number of people wanting to book and booking working holidays.
The company reported an increase of 136 per cent in online searches for holiday homes, a 92 per cent rise for hotel apartments and a 69 per cent increase for apartments.
Wego has also witnessed a 19 per cent rise in the duration of a stay – with the average holiday booked on the platform being 22 days long.
The company’s study was based on the responses of about 4,400 people living in the UAE and Saudi Arabia.
“People are flying out for longer because they want to make up for lost time from sitting at home in the pandemic,” said Ross Veitch, chief executive of Wego.
“There’s an attitude as well if they’re going to go through the pain of what’s involved in the logistics of travel, then they’re going to make the most of it, as restrictions have eased a little bit now.
“We’re seeing people mixing business with pleasure and working while on vacation.
“Some of my own staff were working from Bali recently, for example.”
Mr Veitch said there was also a trend of people returning to their home countries for extended stays.
“Employers have given them that flexibility to spend time connecting again with family, while still remaining on the job,” he said.
“If you’re a professional white-collar worker right now, I would say the world is your oyster. It’s not unusual for someone to fly out of the UAE and park themselves somewhere in the Mediterranean but stay connected to the workplace.”
Local hoteliers have also been benefiting from this trend, Mr Veitch said.
“There were an awful lot of people who came to Dubai to work from here,” he said. “There were many who booked long-term hotel stays on the back of that.
“The trend of people looking for long-stay accommodation beyond the traditional hotel stay is going to continue.”
Jochem-Jan Sleiffer, Hilton hotels president for the Middle East said “the whole perception of work being based in one place is gone”.
Mr Sleiffer said it was “much more fluid nowadays” than working at an office from Mondays until Fridays.
He said this meant employers had fewer issues with staff taking longer holidays while also working for part of that time.
“The pandemic also meant people were reassessing what was important in their lives and realising family time was very important,” Mr Sleiffer said.
He said another trend is people are now travelling in larger groups than before Covid.
“[They] used to just travel in pairs but now we are seeing more cases when they are in groups of six to eight,” he said.
“The reason for this is they saved a lot of money during the pandemic and now want to go on the trip of a lifetime.
“People used to just travel together with children but now are taking grandparents and other family members along.”
By all indicators, the travel industry is seeing a healthy resurgence after two years of Covid-19 when health concerns, lockdowns and other restrictions around the world prevented many from flying. Now, with leisure travel having resumed in most places, the industry has been afforded a measure of respite.
Besides being an attractive destination in itself, the UAE’s location makes it a prime spot for travel and connecting flights. The recent Eid rush at airports in the UAE, when more than 1.9 million passengers were said to have flown to or from Dubai International Airport between April 28 and May 9, speaks to this resurgence.
The industry was already seeing a gradual return. In the UAE, in the first four months of this year, 2.35 million passengers flew on flydubai, a low-cost airline – more than double the airline’s passenger count in the same quarter last year.
Considering the high vaccination rates in developed countries, and broad relaxation of Covid-19 restrictions in several destinations, more tickets are being booked and suitcases dusted off. In April, the US removed 89 countries from its “Do Not Fly” list.
More long-term trends are likely to emerge this week from Arabian Travel Market, a key event for the industry under way in Dubai. ATM will see 112 countries aiming to push their tourism numbers up by wooing 20,000 expected visitors.
Danielle Curtis, Middle East exhibition director for the ATM, said: “Arabian Travel Market 2022 will highlight the importance of the travel industry as we continue to address the challenges of Covid-19, while also outlining how we drive the industry forward.”
But even as things look rosier than they have since the beginning of the pandemic, business travel remains disrupted. People may be going on vacation as they were in 2019, but with many industries having realised the feasibility and effectiveness of video-calls over the cost of footing the bill to fly executives to meetings, there is still a shortfall in frequent flyer numbers that airlines would like to make up.
Nor is that the only challenge facing airlines. The rising price of fuel affects the travel industry in a sizeable way and adds to costs. There is also the pressing challenge to transition to cleaner fuel. Last September, the aviation industry saw a united push towards helping the world inch closer to carbon neutrality by 2050, when about 60 aviation companies said they would increase the share of sustainable aviation fuels in the industry to 10 per cent by 2030. Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Airways slashed emissions by 56 per cent between 2018 and 2021. With the environment on everyone’s mind, it is a priority for several carriers to set up sustainable business models. Several have already made a push towards using cleaner fuels. Last week, Airbus flew the first A380 flight on 100 per cent sustainable aviation fuel.
There is plenty of buzz over such measures, but it remains to be seen how much will be achieved in the long term. Customers’ enthusiasm for travel after the pandemic will help get the industry back on its feet. Success for the long haul, however, will be about more than filling seats.