Skift Take
Indian travelers are looking at Middle East for short-haul trips. Airlines from India and the region are in a race to attract them.
India is emerging as an important source market for tourism for Middle Eastern nations.
In 2023, 11.9 million Indian passengers visited Dubai, accounting for nearly 70% of its total 17.15 million international tourists. Saudi Arabia is also looking at India as a potential top source market. It witnessed a 50% increase in Indian visitors in 2023, and is aiming to attract 7.5 million Indian visitors over the next seven years. India is also a key market for Qatar, which accounted for over 10% of the tourists in the nation last year. It was the second largest source market, after Saudi Arabia. Oman received around 4.3 million international visitors in 2023. Of these, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries collectively accounted for 1.6 million visitors, followed by India, with 610,000 tourists. Last year, over 270,000 Indian tourists visited Turkey, an incr