The UAE sits on the middle of this job. Corporations are travelling extra regularly between Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh and Doha to regulate initiatives, meet companions and coordinate technique. That helped push musafir.com’s company shuttle bookings up 35% year-on-year, appearing how call for is emerging around the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Extra journeys are related to meetings, industry presentations and corporate offsites, with companies shifting extra easily throughout Gulf markets.
A big proportion of this expansion comes from MICE job — which refers to conferences, incentives, meetings and exhibitions. Those gatherings permit corporations to carry key other people in combination in a single position and transfer choices ahead temporarily.
“We are witnessing a fundamental recalibration of why companies travel,” mentioned Sachin Gadoya, CEO and Co-Founding father of musafir.com. “Business travel is no longer defined by routine movement, but by purposeful moments that drive alignment, trust and outcomes.”
Face-to-face nonetheless issues
Globally, spending on trade shuttle reached $1.47 trillion in 2024, however corporations are actually extra selective about when and why they shuttle. As a substitute of common brief journeys, corporations are opting for fewer however extra significant trips — corresponding to management summits, technique periods and innovation workshops — the place being in the similar room is helping groups agree sooner and construct consider.
Executives say in-person engagement nonetheless provides advantages that on-line conferences can’t totally substitute, particularly when negotiating offers or fixing advanced problems. This manner could also be shaping the way in which UAE-based corporations shuttle, as they prioritise journeys that make stronger relationships and accelerate choices.
Why corporations make a choice the UAE
The UAE and Saudi Arabia have expanded their occasions calendars, attracting global exhibitions and boards from throughout Asia, Europe and North The united states. Dubai’s connectivity and venues, along side Abu Dhabi and Riyadh’s rising proportion of industrial conferences, make the area a gorgeous selection for company gatherings.
Journeys between the UAE and Saudi Arabia have higher as corporations run regional initiatives throughout each markets. Extra resort bookings related to building, generation, power and actual property display that job isn’t restricted to meetings.
“For many organisations, a focused two-day in-person strategy session can achieve what weeks of virtual meetings cannot,” mentioned Gadoya. “That’s particularly true for businesses managing regional growth and complex stakeholder relationships.”
Tech will form 2026 shuttle
Taking a look forward, corporations be expecting generation to play a larger position in how trade shuttle is deliberate and controlled. Synthetic intelligence is being constructed into reserving programs to personalise journeys and automate regimen processes.
Jen Moyse, Vice President of Product and Head of UX at SAP Concur, mentioned corporations will depend on AI to reinforce traveller protection: “Businesses will use it to enhance duty of care, predicting risks and personalising safety alerts to individual travellers.”
With extra automation, corporations additionally wish to deal with transparency and consider.
Charlie Sultan, President of Concur Trip at SAP Concur, mentioned AI adoption will have to be balanced sparsely: “All eyes will be on companies and how they approach talent and staffing in response to AI adoption. Establishing trust and ensuring transparency will be critical in the year ahead.”
Rethinking shuttle spending
Automation is anticipated to switch how corporations observe bills and reimburse staff.
Christopher Juneau, SVP and Head of Product Advertising and marketing at SAP Concur, mentioned some conventional processes might disappear: “In a few short years, the concept of an ‘expense report’ may be obsolete, replaced by agentic AI that audits, reconciles, and reimburses automatically in the background.”
To have the benefit of those adjustments, companies are linking extra in their interior programs — together with invoices, receipts and payroll — to AI equipment so spending turns into more uncomplicated to observe and set up.
Corporations also are on the lookout for techniques to regulate prices with out proscribing shuttle that drives expansion. Kacey Flygare, Basic Supervisor and International Trade Head, SMB, at SAP Concur, mentioned automation will assist set up spending responsibly: “Pre-spend controls such as virtual cards and dynamic card controls will be gamechangers in how organisations control spend, lower risk, and reduce the burden of cash outlay for business expenses.”
Robust outlook this 12 months
Many finance leaders be expecting 2026 to be a 12 months of experimentation as they stability innovation with chance.
Sonja Simon, Leader Monetary Officer, SAP Americas, mentioned growth is dependent upon making an attempt new approaches: “Only when failure becomes a data point, not a downfall, will the finance function fully unlock AI’s potential to reimagine decision-making, growth, and value creation across the business.”
The outlook stays sure. As Gulf economies extend and cross-border cooperation deepens, corporations within the UAE are anticipated to stay travelling for paintings — that specialize in journeys that construct relationships, fortify technique and improve primary initiatives. Call for would possibly not achieve pre-2020 ranges, however shuttle is changing into extra strategic, extra selective and extra hooked up to trade results.
For UAE-based staff, the message is apparent: trade shuttle is returning no longer as regimen motion, however as a device for growth — constructed round consider, collaboration and effects.
Justin is a private finance writer and seasoned trade journalist with over a decade of revel in. He makes it his venture to wreck down advanced monetary subjects and lead them to transparent, relatable, and related—serving to on a regular basis readers navigate nowadays’s financial system with self belief.
Ahead of returning to his Center Japanese roots, the place he was once born and raised, Justin labored as a Trade Correspondent at Reuters, reporting on equities and financial tendencies throughout each the Center East and Asia-Pacific areas.
