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Shopping was the favourite activity cited by 75% of Arabian travellers
How many trips do people from the Middle East take?
According to the Arabian Travel Monitor from IPK International, which covers outbound travel from Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait, in 2005, Arabs made 12.1 million trips, spent 272 million nights abroad and spent 22 million Euros.
The figures represented growths of 37%, 18% and 69% respectively on 2000.
Saudi Arabia was the largest source with 6.6 million outbound trips, followed by Emirates, 2.5 million, Kuwait 2.5 million and Bahrain 0.5 million.
Where do they go?
The top destinations were West Asia/Middle East (51% share), followed by Egypt/Africa, South Asia, Europe, Southeast Asia and the Americas. The biggest holiday segment was touring and city holidays, said the IPK report.
How do they book trips?
Internet usage for travel bookings remains low in Arab countries - only eight percent said they used the Internet for travel, out of which only three percent said they booked online.
However, the report said there were one million Gulf Arabian Internet travel users, showing the potential for online travel growth in the market.
What do they do on holiday?
Shopping was the favourite activity - cited by 75% of Arabian travelers.
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