As temperatures rise across the GCC and schools break for summer, the region enters its annual travel season. Airports buzz with families heading for cooler destinations or for spiritual journeys like Al-Hajj. It’s a time when customer behavior, and expectations shift dramatically.
For brands, this is not “business as usual.” The travel season in the GCC brings unique emotional and functional needs shaped by the region’s culture and way of life. Successful customer experience (CX) leaders understand this shift and adapt their experience design accordingly.
Let’s explore how CX can better align with consumer behavior during this important season:
Understanding the Consumer Behavior Shift
• Emotional Context
In the GCC, the travel season carries more than the promise of a holiday. It is a deeply emotional time:
• Families travel together multi-generational trips are common, reflecting the collectivistic culture of the region.
• Spiritual journeys for many, Hajj or is a once-in-a-lifetime experience, charged with meaning.
• Stress and anticipation: travelers seek smooth, stress-free experiences but often face uncertainty around logistics, bookings, and cross-border services.
This emotional landscape means that CX must go beyond functionality. How? it must support, reassure, and empathize.
• Functional Context
Consumer behavior shifts on a practical level too:
• Mobile-first mindset: as travelers move, their phones become their main interface with brands.
• Cross-border expectations: customers want seamless banking, roaming, loyalty benefits, and service continuity while abroad.
• Real-time needs: quick updates on flights, payments, or hotel changes are critical.
• Flexibility matters: customers need options to change plans easily.
Linking Consumer Behavior to CX in the GCC
In the collectivistic GCC culture, the family experience matters as much as the individual one. Brands should design journeys that consider group needs for example:
• Booking journeys that allow easy group management.
• Loyalty programs that reward family spending, not just individual.
• Communication that reflects cultural warmth and connection, not cold automation.
Omnichannel consistency becomes crucial, as customers will use apps, social media, call centers, and face-to-face channels depending on where they are in their journey. Maintaining a consistent tone and experience across these touchpoints builds trust.
Empathy and human touch should be embedded even in digital interactions. A travel insurance reminder worded with care, a hotel check-in app that says “We wish you a blessed journey” — these small moments create emotional connection.
The CX Opportunity
GCC travel season is a golden opportunity for brands to build loyalty by showing they understand and care about their customers’ life context.
To do this well:
✅ Design journeys that reflect both emotional and functional needs.
✅ Honor the collectivistic, family-oriented culture in offers and communications.
✅ Ensure seamless, mobile-first, omnichannel experiences for customers on the move.
✅ Humanize digital touchpoints with culturally relevant warmth and empathy.
Final Thought
CX is not static. It must evolve with the rhythms of life and in the GCC, travel season is one of the biggest rhythms of all. By aligning experience design with customers’ emotional and functional needs during this time, brands can turn a transactional season into one of deeper connection and lasting loyalty.
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