Business travel in the Middle East is soaring, with Kuwait, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia expected to be the fastest-growing business travel markets in the Middle East this year, as per the 2024 Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) Business Travel Index Outlook Report.
The region’s estimated business travel spend was US$18.1 billion in 2024.
Sharing insights at Arabian Travel Market 2025 in Dubai, Catherine Logan, regional senior vice president EMEA and APAC at GBTA, highlighted that the Middle East outperformed all other regions in its post-pandemic recovery.
“Business travel spend in the Middle East has reached 19.4 per cent higher than the pre-Covid level,” Logan said.
Looking ahead to 2025, the region’s growth is expected to slow slightly.
“In 2025, the Middle East’s business travel spend growth of 6.1 per cent is expected to lag global growth of 10.4 per cent. This is because business travel in the Middle East recovered from the pandemic way quicker than the rest of the world. It saw a big surge earlier, so the rest of the markets like APAC which took longer to come out of Covid are now seeing high rates of growth,” Logan told TTGmice.
In 2025, Israel is forecasted to lead the region’s business travel demand with an expected spend of US$4.9 billion, followed by Saudi Arabia at US$3.6 billion and the UAE at US$2.8 billion.
Ciaran Kelly, managing director of Middle East & Africa, FCM Travel, said, “The main markets driving growth for business travel for us include UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and Egypt. We are noticing a lot of activities taking place in these markets from inbound, domestic, and outbound business travel perspectives.
“There is a strong demand for regional business travel. For example, it is almost impossible to get a seat on a flight from Dubai to Riyadh these days.”
As per the GBTA report, the Asia-Pacific region, with an estimated business travel spend of US$612.6 billion, led global demand in 2024.
