Middle East gains ground with Chinese tourists during Golden Week

The Middle East has traditionally not ranked among the top destinations for Chinese travelers, but that appears to be changing fast.

During this year’s extended Golden Week holiday — which runs Oct. 1–8 — Chinese travel reservations to Doha surged 441% from a year earlier, while bookings to Abu Dhabi rose 229%, according to Trip.com. The online travel agency said its data covered Sept. 27 to Oct. 8, as many office workers took additional leave to lengthen the break.

Meanwhile, Dubai saw a 27% increase, placing it among the top 10 destinations outside Asia, according to travel data analytics firm ForwardKeys, which counted international departures from China between Sept. 27 and Oct. 12.

The Emirate, which is part of the United Arab Emirates, was also one of the top choices for affluent Chinese travelers traveling on premium economy, business, and first class seats, with demand going up 133% year on year.

That rise reflects a broader trend of more Chinese travelers heading to the Middle East. Flights from China to the region have grown by 25% so far this year from the same period in 2024, Edmund Ong, general manager at Trip.com Singapore, told CNBC.

The growth is even more striking when compared to the same period in 2019, Ong said, with current levels over 180% higher than before the pandemic.

The five fastest-growing overseas destinations for hotel bookings during the Golden Week were Saudi Arabia, Egypt, New Zealand, Kazakhstan, and the UAE, according to a Google translation of data from Tongcheng Travel, the second-largest online travel booking platform in China.

Within the Middle East, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar, and Oman were the most popular, Ong said.

Still, the usual suspects — nearby, affordable and visa-free Asian countries — continued to dominate outbound travel for Chinese tourists, led by Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, South Korea, and Singapore, data from Trip.com showed.

Accessibility, ‘uniqueness’ fuel demand

The Middle East’s growing popularity in recent years has been driven by relaxed visa policies and more direct flight routes, Ong said. 

“Pre-Covid, particularly the UAE — Dubai and Abu Dhabi — were very popular because they had very easy visa processing. And visas and the accessibility of visa or no visa is a real big driver for Chinese citizens,” said Alexander Glos, CEO of China i2i Group, a Shanghai-based marketing and business development company.

In the immediate years, post-Covid, the UAE and some countries in the Middle East “did very well,” Glos added. “Again, that was because it was open, it was a place to go, it was easy to go to, it was affordable, and offered a lot of different travel opportunities.”

The Middle East has also been “very progressive” in adding direct flights into Chinese cities, said Peggy Li, CEO and managing director of Chinese marketing consultancy SPS Affinity. She noted that the flag carrier of Dubai, Emirates, in July inaugurated a new flight route to Hangzhou, which houses the headquarters of Alibaba and is near Hong Kong — just weeks after beginning flights to Shenzhen.

“If you look at these new destinations of where Emirates have started… it is not only for touristic perspective, [but also] is commercially strategic,” Li said.

Chinese travelers are also drawn to experiential-focused attractions and cultural diversity. Though “demand for private charter, luxury desert safari [experiences] is still relatively strong,” Li said, she observed that the demand for “real, meaningful experiences becomes much more apparent,” such as educational study trips. 

The Middle East’s novelty to Chinese travelers has turned it into a status symbol, i2i’s Glos said. 

“It shows a certain amount of status. I am an adventurer. I have the financial capability to travel. I’m going someplace that you have never been to,” he said. “And I can share it with my 965 closest friends on WeChat.”

The regions’s diverse cuisines are another draw, said SPS Affinity’s Li. “[Chinese travelers] usually don’t get to sample, like Iranian, Afghan, Syrian, Lebanese,” she added. “It’s such a melting pot that they get to come and have a real good kick of different flavors to try.”

Dubai losing its bling?

The increasing demand for outbound travel to the Middle East may be a boon for the region, but the challenge for the Gulf countries will be differentiating themselves when they offer similar attractions.

“If you look at the natural resources available among all the [Gulf Cooperation Council] countries, in terms of the no-brainer touristic bucket list, everyone has it,” Li said. “You want to go desert safari with the dune bashing, they all have a desert. You want to go hot air balloon breakfast in the desert… the camel ride and the sunset horse ride in the desert, they all have it.”

Dubai, in particular, is “having a lot of trouble” attracting Chinese tourists, who are interested in something more local, said Glos. Tourists “don’t see anything that is local or unique [in Dubai]. Its McDonald’s, KFCs and Tim Hortons… doesn’t seem very Arabic,” he added.

According to his research and conversations with hoteliers and destination management companies, he estimated that Chinese travel to Dubai is down about 50% this year.

In comparison, Abu Dhabi appears “more Emirati” and “much more local”, he said, adding that its cultural and historical attractions create a “different kind of experiential combination.”

Data from Dubai’s Department of Economy and Tourism showed that Northeast and Southeast Asian travelers to the Emirate fell by about 0.4% year on year between January and July, compared with the same period in 2024.

Dubai’s reputation for luxury shopping has also dimmed as Chinese consumers rein in spending due to economic pressures at home. A weaker yen has also made luxury goods more affordable in neighbouring Japan.

Moving forward, Li said, it will be the “race of the fittest” for the Middle East to capture a larger slice of the Chinese international travel pie.