UAE travellers moved away from leisure destinations and towards home-country and essential routes in March 2026, according to Mamoun Hmidan, Chief Business Officer at Wego.
The top outbound destinations from the UAE by search volume were India, Pakistan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan. By booking volume, Egypt, India and Pakistan led demand, Hmidan told Lana in an exclusive interview.
“At the Dubai level specifically, the top five destinations by bookings were India, Pakistan, Egypt, the Philippines, and Jordan,” he said.
The change in travel patterns came during a period of regional uncertainty, which affected sentiment and travel planning across the Middle East. However, Wego data showed demand did not disappear, but travellers became more selective, delayed bookings and prioritised practical routes over discretionary leisure travel.
Thailand searches from UAE drop 40%
Thailand saw a drop in demand from UAE travellers, Hmidan said.
“From the UAE, searches to Thailand were down by roughly 40 per cent versus baseline, and bookings were also materially lower year-on-year,” he said.
Sri Lanka remained stable in earlier UAE outbound analysis, though it did not emerge as a major mover in the wider GCC comparison for March. He added that Pakistan, India and Egypt recorded growth, while Sudan posted a spike from a lower base.
“That tells us travellers were prioritising familiarity, necessity, and direct community links over discretionary leisure,” Hmidan said.
However, according to Wego data, leisure travel lost momentum. “Our data suggests leisure was deprioritised during this period,” Hmidan said.
From the UAE, Thailand, Turkey and Georgia recorded declines, while demand moved towards India, Pakistan, Egypt and Bangladesh, he said.
Across the GCC, Turkey bookings fell 43.5 per cent and Southeast Asia bookings dropped 48.2 per cent, with no leisure destination replacing them. Wego’s Hmidan said search demand remained active, although fewer travellers completed bookings immediately.
“We’ve seen resilient search demand, but softer booking conversion,” Hmidan said, adding that across the GCC, March searches were down 6.7 per cent year-on-year.
“So the appetite to travel has not disappeared, but people are taking longer to commit and are making more selective decisions.”
The data also showed a move towards short-notice bookings. “During this period, it became much more of a near-term booking market,” Hmidan said, adding nearly half of all UAE searches were for travel within the next seven days, which was 21 percentage points above the seasonal norm.
Average booking prices rose around 15 per cent, from about $490 to $570, reflecting demand for short-notice travel.
Trip durations also increased, Hmidan said, especially on home-country routes. Trips to Pakistan averaged 32 days, while India and Egypt averaged between 24 and 26 days, he revealed.
Travel demand shifted towards solo travellers in March
Solo travellers accounted for 93 per cent of UAE searches, up from 88 per cent before the crisis period. Couples fell from 4.3 per cent to 2.3 per cent, while family searches declined from 5.9 per cent to 4.1 per cent.
“That is a meaningful shift away from leisure and family holidays toward individual travel,” he said, adding by nationality proxy, the strongest post-crisis activity came from users on the AE site, followed by increased activity from Indian and Pakistani site users.
The top three destinations searched by AE-site users were India, Pakistan and Egypt.
“The key point is that demand did not disappear, but behaviour changed materially. Travellers remained active in the market, but they became more selective, more last-minute, and more focused on certainty. What we saw was not a collapse in interest in travel, but a shift away from discretionary leisure and toward practical, familiar, and essential routes. That is an important distinction, because once conditions stabilise, booking behaviour can recover quickly even if conversion pauses in the short term,” he concluded.
