According to online travel agent (OTA), musafir.com, UAE travellers are looking for extended budget-friendly work vacations to escape the heat in the month of August.

Thanks to increased flexibility and a hybrid work environment, the OTA has observed more and more UAE professionals opting to work remotely from cooler destinations in August, combining work with leisure; also noting longer and more affordable holidays of at least 15 days.

With the most searched destinations including Europe, the USA, UK, Salalah in Oman, Abha in Saudi Arabia, Almaty in Kazakhstan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Greece, Kenya, and Zanzibar, the OTA noticed the rise of these following travel trends:

Family reunions and staycations: Families are prioritising visits to their home countries to reunite with friends and relatives. Locally, staycations featuring theme parks, water parks, and indoor amusements are popular choices.

Women/boys only trips and solo travel: While female travellers are embracing road trips to Ras Al Khaimah and Fujairah, along with themed holidays to beaches and mountains, the men are opting for adventurous getaways to scuba dive, snorkel, mountain bike, parasail, sky-dive, and bungee-jump among other experiences. And solo travellers are exploring destinations off the beaten path including Latvia and Malta.

Adventure and beach escapes for couples: Couples are opting for romantic getaways to beach destinations such as the Maldives, Thailand, Seychelles, Sri Lanka.

Religious tourism: Umrah pilgrimage is gaining popularity among UAE residents, with many incorporating it into their business trips to Saudi Arabia.

Innovative services: During the summer season, musafir.com notes an uptick in demand for convenient travel services such as city check-ins and doorstep visa application services.

In a bid to improve its service offering to travellers and users, musafir.com deepened its relationship with global distribution system (GDS) Amadeus back in May, integrating the latter’s cutting-edge new distribution capability (NDC) technology and Robotics into its platform.

NDC represents a transformative standard in the travel industry, an enabler for enhanced retailing and more tailored and relevant offers. Key benefits of this integration include automated scanning for lower fares matching itinerary details, increased agent efficiency through automatic rebooking, personalised recommendations tailored to individual needs, and configurable optimization to maximise profitability.

With the tool identifying opportunities for cost saving options and offering instant alerts for rebooking or queue placement, travellers are ensured to receive the best value for their travel bookings.