Middle East gains ground with Chinese tourists during Golden Week

The Middle East has traditionally not ranked among the many top destinations for Chinese travelers, but that appears to be changing fast.

During this 12 months’s prolonged Golden Week holiday — which runs Oct. 1–8 — Chinese travel reservations to Doha surged 441% from a 12 months earlier, while bookings to Abu Dhabi rose 229%, based on Trip.com. The web travel agency said its data covered Sept. 27 to Oct. 8, as many office employees took additional leave to elongate the break.

Meanwhile, Dubai saw a 27% increase, placing it among the many top 10 destinations outside Asia, based on travel data analytics firm ForwardKeys, which counted international departures from China between Sept. 27 and Oct. 12.

The Emirate, which is an element of the United Arab Emirates, was also one among the highest selections for affluent Chinese travelers traveling on premium economy, business, and top notch seats, with demand going up 133% 12 months on 12 months.

That rise reflects a broader trend of more Chinese travelers heading to the Middle East. Flights from China to the region have grown by 25% thus far this 12 months from the identical period in 2024, Edmund Ong, general manager at Trip.com Singapore, told CNBC.

The expansion is much more striking in comparison to the identical period in 2019, Ong said, with current levels over 180% higher than before the pandemic.

The five fastest-growing overseas destinations for hotel bookings throughout the Golden Week were Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Latest Zealand, Kazakhstan, and the UAE, based on a Google translation of knowledge from Tongcheng Travel, the second-largest online travel booking platform in China.

Inside the Middle East, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar, and Oman were the most well-liked, Ong said.

Still, the same old suspects — nearby, reasonably priced and visa-free Asian countries — continued to dominate outbound travel for Chinese tourists, led by Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, South Korea, and Singapore, data from Trip.com showed.

Accessibility, ‘uniqueness’ fuel demand

The Middle East’s growing popularity lately has been driven by relaxed visa policies and more direct flight routes, Ong said. 

“Pre-Covid, particularly the UAE — Dubai and Abu Dhabi — were highly regarded because they’d very easy visa processing. And visas and the accessibility of visa or no visa is an actual big driver for Chinese residents,” said Alexander Glos, CEO of China i2i Group, a Shanghai-based marketing and business development company.

Within the immediate years, post-Covid, the UAE and a few countries within the Middle East “did thoroughly,” Glos added. “Again, that was since it was open, it was a spot to go, it was easy to go to, it was reasonably priced, and offered a whole lot of different travel opportunities.”

The Middle East has also been “very progressive” in adding direct flights into Chinese cities, said Peggy Li, CEO and managing director of Chinese marketing consultancy SPS Affinity. She noted that the flag carrier of Dubai, Emirates, in July inaugurated a brand new flight route to Hangzhou, which houses the headquarters of Alibaba and is near Hong Kong — just weeks after starting flights to Shenzhen.

“For those who have a look at these latest destinations of where Emirates have began… it is just not just for touristic perspective, [but also] is commercially strategic,” Li said.

Chinese travelers are also drawn to experiential-focused attractions and cultural diversity. Though “demand for personal charter, luxury desert safari [experiences] continues to be relatively strong,” Li said, she observed that the demand for “real, meaningful experiences becomes way more apparent,” reminiscent of educational study trips. 

The Middle East’s novelty to Chinese travelers has turned it into a standing symbol, i2i’s Glos said. 

“It shows a certain quantity of status. I’m an adventurer. I even have the financial capability to travel. I’m going someplace that you’ve never been to,” he said. “And I can share it with my 965 closest friends on WeChat.”

The regions’s diverse cuisines are one other draw, said SPS Affinity’s Li. “[Chinese travelers] often do not get to sample, like Iranian, Afghan, Syrian, Lebanese,” she added. “It’s such a melting pot that they get to come back and have an actual good kick of various flavors to try.”

Dubai losing its bling?

The increasing demand for outbound travel to the Middle East could also be a boon for the region, however the challenge for the Gulf countries might be differentiating themselves after they offer similar attractions.

“For those who have a look at the natural resources available amongst all of the [Gulf Cooperation Council] countries, when it comes to the no-brainer touristic bucket list, everyone has it,” Li said. “You would like to go desert safari with the dune bashing, all of them have a desert. You would like to go hot air balloon breakfast within the desert… the camel ride and the sunset horse ride within the desert, all of them have it.”

Dubai, particularly, is “having a whole lot of trouble” attracting Chinese tourists, who’re excited about something more local, said Glos. Tourists “don’t see anything that’s local or unique [in Dubai]. Its McDonald’s, KFCs and Tim Hortons… doesn’t seem very Arabic,” he added.

In accordance with his research and conversations with hoteliers and destination management corporations, he estimated that Chinese travel to Dubai is down about 50% this 12 months.

Compared, Abu Dhabi appears “more Emirati” and “way more local”, he said, adding that its cultural and historical attractions create a “different sort of experiential combination.”

Data from Dubai’s Department of Economy and Tourism showed that Northeast and Southeast Asian travelers to the Emirate fell by about 0.4% 12 months on 12 months between January and July, compared with the identical period in 2024.

Dubai’s repute for luxury shopping has also dimmed as Chinese consumers rein in spending resulting from economic pressures at home. A weaker yen has also made luxury goods more cost-effective in neighbouring Japan.

Moving forward, Li said, it can be the “race of the fittest” for the Middle East to capture a bigger slice of the Chinese international travel pie.