According to travel industry analysts, Ramadan travel this year is still far behind the heights it reached before the pandemic in 2019.
However, a major factor in assessing the recovery of Ramadan travel are the dates when the festival falls due. In 2019 Eid al-Fitr was in June, a much better time of the year to travel, as the end of Ramadan was close to the start of the long summer school holidays in Saudi Arabia .
That said, as of March 31, outbound flight bookings from the GCC states for the three weeks running up to Eid Al-Fitr, the end of Ramadan, were 38% behind where they were in the equivalent period in 2019; and for the three weeks after Eid al-Fitr, they are 67% behind.
GCC outbound flight bookings for the peak Ramadan holiday period, April 14-24, are better, 32% behind 2019. Flight bookings from Saudi Arabia are 44% behind but travel from other major GCC countries is seeing a stronger recovery, with Kuwait 27% behind, Qatar 11% behind, UAE 6% behind and Bahrain 2% ahead.
Flight bookings to GCC countries are more encouraging, currently 12% behind 2019. The major drag is travel to Saudi Arabia, where flight bookings are 40% behind 2019; and bookings for Kuwait are 43% behind. However, bookings for Bahrain are 16% ahead and for Qatar, UAE and Oman are 39%, 47% and 48% ahead respectively.
Analysis of where Ramadan holidaymakers from GCC countries are going reveals that the top trending destination is the Maldives, 177% ahead of 2019. It is also benefitting from a surge in affluent visitors, as evidenced by a nine-percentage point increase in the share of premium cabin bookings. It is followed by Qatar, 91% ahead, Thailand 65% ahead, the Netherlands 37% ahead, Pakistan 25% ahead, UAE 22% ahead, Italy 20% ahead, France 14% ahead and the UK 1% ahead.