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Arab Gulf residents spent 27 billion dollars in trips last year

Sonntag, 15. April 2001 / 15:56 Uhr

Dubai - Residents of the Arab Gulf states spent 27 billion dollars while making 8.8 million trips across the globe last year.

"Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) residents spend much more than the Europeans", said Rolf D. Freitag, executive director of the Munich-based travel research and marketing consulting firm, IPK International, which launched its Arabian Travel Monitor on Saturday in Dubai.

The oil-rich strategic alliance of the GCC is made up of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE, Oman, Qatar and Bahrain.

The average spending by a GCC resident per trip was to the tune of 1,814 dollars, while that of a European was 836 dollars. GCC residents spent 135 dollars per night compared to 88 dollars by a European.

Freitag said that the favourite destinations for 3.2 million of the GCC outbound traveller were countries in the Middle East, 2.2 million to South Asia, 1.2 million to Egypt and North Africa, one million to Europe, 0,9 million to South East Asia and 0.2 million to the Americas.

"Sixty per cent of the tourists were males," said Freitag.

Business travellers from the GCC made a total of 1.1 million trips abroad, staying in hotels 8 million nights and spending 3.3 billion dollars collectively.

"GCC residents are also big shoppers", Freitag said, pointing out that 60 per cent of approximately one million travellers going on city-breaks said shopping was their top priority. (bb/dpa)