Musafir.com’s 2026 Annual Travel Insights Report, released on 20 February, reveals that 52 percent of UAE residents now choose leisure destinations primarily from Instagram and TikTok content, while 44 percent said they consulted AI travel planners such as ChatGPT before booking flights. The findings illustrate how digital tools are reshaping outbound mobility patterns from the Emirates.
Travel agencies interviewed by Arabian Business say the trend is most pronounced among Gen-Z and millennial expatriates with flexible remote-work arrangements under the UAE’s freelance and remote-work visa schemes. Short-notice "workation" bookings to Georgia, Thailand and the Seychelles have surged 38 percent year-on-year, supported by visa-on-arrival or e-visa frameworks that users discover through influencers’ reels.
![Report: UAE Residents Rely on Social Media and AI Chatbots to Plan 2026 Holidays]()
To avoid surprises at immigration desks, an increasing number of residents are cross-checking social-media tips against professional sources such as VisaHQ. The company’s UAE portal (https://www.visahq.com/united-arab-emirates/) offers up-to-date visa requirements for more than 200 destinations and can manage end-to-end processing, giving both individual travellers and corporate mobility teams a reliable compliance backstop.
For mobility and relocation managers the data has two implications: First, assignees taking personal trips increasingly expect employer insurance policies to cover AI-recommended itineraries, including peer-to-peer accommodation and low-cost carriers. Second, destination-marketing bodies are pivoting budgets toward influencer partnerships that directly target the UAE’s expatriate labour pool, potentially diverting traffic away from company-negotiated hotel programmes.
HR compliance teams should remind staff that immigration rules—not social-media advice—govern entry requirements. Travel policies may need updated guidance on verifying visa status and medical-insurance sufficiency when employees use AI tools that can occasionally return outdated regulations.
Travel agencies interviewed by Arabian Business say the trend is most pronounced among Gen-Z and millennial expatriates with flexible remote-work arrangements under the UAE’s freelance and remote-work visa schemes. Short-notice "workation" bookings to Georgia, Thailand and the Seychelles have surged 38 percent year-on-year, supported by visa-on-arrival or e-visa frameworks that users discover through influencers’ reels.
To avoid surprises at immigration desks, an increasing number of residents are cross-checking social-media tips against professional sources such as VisaHQ. The company’s UAE portal (https://www.visahq.com/united-arab-emirates/) offers up-to-date visa requirements for more than 200 destinations and can manage end-to-end processing, giving both individual travellers and corporate mobility teams a reliable compliance backstop.
For mobility and relocation managers the data has two implications: First, assignees taking personal trips increasingly expect employer insurance policies to cover AI-recommended itineraries, including peer-to-peer accommodation and low-cost carriers. Second, destination-marketing bodies are pivoting budgets toward influencer partnerships that directly target the UAE’s expatriate labour pool, potentially diverting traffic away from company-negotiated hotel programmes.
HR compliance teams should remind staff that immigration rules—not social-media advice—govern entry requirements. Travel policies may need updated guidance on verifying visa status and medical-insurance sufficiency when employees use AI tools that can occasionally return outdated regulations.
