DUBAI — As countries start to come out of lockdown and slowly lift their restrictions, GCC travelers are planning future trips and gearing up for travel. The recent Travel Sentiment Survey conducted by AllDetails, a Dubai based travel & tourism, hospitality, lifestyle and communications agency, revealed that GCC residents intend to travel again soon, preferring international destinations.

The survey was conducted amongst residents and citizens of the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia in order to understand their sentiment towards travel during the COVID-19 pandemic. About 83% have said that they enjoy thinking about travel during this period while 56% of the respondents admitted that they were negatively affected by COVID-19 news.

The respondents expect to have some health security guarantees in place to travel again and will then travel as soon as 2 to 4 weeks after the travel restrictions have been lifted; for both leisure and business purposes. The survey revealed that 72% of GCC travelers will travel for leisure, with a change in scenery being their first priority and 80% will travel for a duration of one week or more.

The survey shows that young travelers between 21–34 years of age are more cautious and would wait longer than the older age group of 35–64 years, to travel again. However, respondents across all age groups enjoy thinking and reading about travel during the pandemic.

“The sentiment across the region is very much a resounding “Yes!” to travel as soon as it is safe to do so. The period of lockdown has made us all realize that we were taking our freedom to travel and experience new places and cultures for granted.

“I believe we have all been writing our bucket lists and thinking about all the new places we want to visit and experience as well as re-visiting our old favorites once again. We have been dreaming about travel over the last few weeks and are all longing to start exploring again soon,” said Isabel Tapp, founder & CEO of AllDetails. — Mediaavataar