{"id":24108,"date":"2019-10-27T13:02:38","date_gmt":"2019-10-27T09:02:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/?p=24108"},"modified":"2019-10-27T13:02:38","modified_gmt":"2019-10-27T09:02:38","slug":"dnata-travel-records-500-increase-in-travel-to-russia-in-summer-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/dnata-travel-records-500-increase-in-travel-to-russia-in-summer-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"dnata Travel Records 500% Increase In Travel To Russia In Summer 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>dnata Travel, the UAE\u2019s longest standing travel agency, has revealed UAE traveller trends for summer 2019, with one destination in particular booming in popularity: Russia.<\/p>\n<p>Travel bookings to the world\u2019s largest country, which became visa free for UAE nationals earlier this year, were up a whopping 500% for the travel agency from May to September 2019 compared to the same months the previous year.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Emily Williams, Head of Retail and Product at dnata Travel UAE, commented<\/strong>: \u201cThis year, travel to Russia has seen a massive spike in popularity from the UAE due to its cooler climate in the summer months, the lift on visa restrictions, and it being an affordable option, both to travel to, and to stay in opulent, 5-star accommodation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe majority, more than 70% of travellers booking with dnata Travel, stayed in 5-star hotels in Moscow \u2013 the capital city being the most popular location of choice \u2013 followed by its second largest city, Saint Petersburg.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Additional reasons for booking trips to Russia from UAE travellers cited by dnata Travel\u2019s in-house travel experts included interest in the country\u2019s rich history, famous art and architecture, the grandeur of its buildings from palaces to metro stations, and the beauty of its untouched nature, combined with the world-class hotels and restaurants on offer there.<\/p>\n<p>Williams commented: \u201cTravellers from the UAE are becoming increasingly adventurous in their travel choices. Although we continue to see high demand for our most popular travel destinations overall including the Indian Ocean islands and the UK, we\u2019ve experienced a spike in destinations emerging in popularity that are either \u2018off-the-beaten-track\u2019, long-haul options, or that have not previously recorded as much traction.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Other locations\u00a0that emerged in popularity for the travel agency this summer include: Finland, Taiwan, South Africa and New Zealand.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBookings for Finland are up 51% on 2018 with UAE residents travelling there in summer for a glimpse of the \u2018midnight sun\u2019, or later in the year around December, to go on the hunt for the Northern Lights,\u201d Williams added.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFollowing on from the popularity of travel to Japan and South Korea worldwide, Taiwan is popular this year from the UAE, with bookings up 47%. Emirates fly direct to Taipei daily, and travellers go to enjoy the excellent food, shopping, hiking, museums, meet its friendly people and take in its fantastic scenery. Now visa free as of August 2019 for UAE nationals, South Africa is also growing in popularity at an 8-10 hour flight time from Dubai and with so much to offer. UAE travellers are mainly booking to stay in the Western Cape, covering the popular Cape Town, Table Bay and the beautiful Garden Route.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFurther afield, bookings to New Zealand are up 23% as travellers are more willing to make the 17.5-hour-long\u00a0trip with Emirates to reach this beautiful destination, and there\u2019s also the option to fly to Auckland via Bali for a multi-destination trip. Once in New Zealand, it\u2019s easy to self-drive. The most popular spot for UAE travellers is Queenstown on the South Island, famous for great skiing, and the beautiful Lake Wakatipu.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Other, popular destinations for travel bookings from the UAE this summer compared to 2018 included: Vietnam (up 50%), Malaysia (up 34%), Cyprus (up 28%) and Zanzibar (up 21%) \u2013 locations that dnata Travel has previously recorded as popular travel destinations of choice from this part of the world.<\/p>\n<p>Find out more about where dnata Travel can take you to worldwide at\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.dnatatravel.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">www.dnatatravel.com<\/a>, by calling 800 DNATA (36282) or visiting its travel experts at its 30-plus outlets across the UAE.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-24109\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/500_mindnightsuninfinland-733831-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/500_mindnightsuninfinland-733831-1.jpg 500w, https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/500_mindnightsuninfinland-733831-1-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-24110\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/500_capetownsouthafrica-144000.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/500_capetownsouthafrica-144000.jpg 500w, https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/500_capetownsouthafrica-144000-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-24111\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/500_lakewakatipuqueenstownnewzealand-315164.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/500_lakewakatipuqueenstownnewzealand-315164.jpg 500w, https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/500_lakewakatipuqueenstownnewzealand-315164-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-24112\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/500_mindnightsuninfinland-733831.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/500_mindnightsuninfinland-733831.jpg 500w, https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/500_mindnightsuninfinland-733831-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>dnata Travel, the UAE\u2019s longest standing travel agency, has revealed UAE traveller trends for summer 2019, with one destination in particular booming in popularity: Russia. Travel bookings to the world\u2019s largest country, which became visa free for UAE nationals earlier this year, were up a whopping 500% for the travel agency from May to September [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24113,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24108"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24108\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24114,"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24108\/revisions\/24114"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}