GB-London: BTA1367 - UAE Expats Research

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is an important source market for inbound tourism to the UK, ranking 20th for visits among all inbound markets in 2019, and 9th for spend. This market is the source of exceptionally valuable visitors, with the average spend per visit being more than double the all-market average in the same year. The UAE is unique within the GCC for its high proportion, and variety, of expat residents. A large number of these are British, and UK expats living in the UAE constituted 31% of visits from this market in 2019. Three quarters of British expats who visit from the UAE come to visit friends and family. Up to this point, in-market research by VisitBritain in the UAE has focussed solely on UAE-national leisure travellers. In order to prepare for a transformed travel market post COVID-19, it is essential for us to understand why and how UAE expats consider the UK as a destination compared to others, in order to plan how best to target them. The overall objective of this project is to understand the profile of UAE expats, what feeds into their travel decision making, perceptions of a trip to the UK, their full customer journey and booking process.