Rise in Mobile Bookings in Middle East Creates New Online Travel Competition
Photo Credit: A tourist taking a selfie near a mosque in Abu Dhabi. The online travel market is projected to reach $15 billion by 2023 across the Middle East region. Flickr.com / Robert Haandrikman
Skift Take
Online travel in the Middle East is not an opportunity to be scoffed at, and smaller online travel outfits and travel search engines are flexing their muscles against established portals like Booking.com and TripAdvisor to capture the increasingly digital traveler.
The Middle East traveler has been going digital across all touchpoints of the travel journey, fueling a surge in the online travel market that is projected to reach $15 billion by 2023 across the region. That will mark an increase of 140 percent from current levels, according to research company Mena Research Partners.
In the last few years, multiple online travel booking agencies and travel search engines have entered the Middle East to cater to this growing market, from international entrants (Singapore’s Wego and India’s Cleartrip) to homegrown brands (UAE’s Tajawal and Kuwait’s Rehlat). All these companies have registered growth in bookings and interest from the regional population in their services.
A challenge for all the online travel agencies, however, is to be profitable.
The concern for the online travel agencies is generating profits, after putting such a large focus on acquiring customers and generating turnover, said
