A Digital- First Start in Dubai
OceanAir was founded in Dubai in 2010 with one office and a small team. In a market still driven largely by hotel desks, travel agents and offline partners, the company began building a direct route between traveller and experience: discover online, book online, then experience Dubai on the ground.
Those early years established a commercial discipline that would later support expansion. OceanAir learned how to present a local experience clearly to an international traveller, manage the booking journey directly and keep product creation close to the operation.
From operating tours to creating destinations
Between 2013 and 2014, OceanAir acquired its first safari vehicles and built the operation required for Dubai's safari licence. That move shifted the company from reselling another operator's product to controlling transport, service and delivery itself.
In 2014, operations moved toward the Red Dunes of Lahbab, with new routes built around the landscape. In 2015, the safari day was redesigned around longer time in the desert, photography, sandboarding, sunset and hospitality. The product became more distinctive because the operating details were designed as part of the experience.
OceanAir on the Global Stage
As the Dubai products matured, OceanAir expanded the way they were sold and delivered. From 2015 to 2017, experiences created locally were translated for international customers and distributed through agencies and OTAs, including a long-running relationship with GetYourGuide.
In 2016, OceanAir introduced walking tours in Dubai and expanded into city tours. From 2016 to 2018, it also built an in-house pipeline for recruiting, training, educating and licensing guides. This gave the company a stronger base of local knowledge and a more consistent standard as volumes grew.
Dubai-built experiences reach the top
OceanAir received a Tripadvisor Certificate of Excellence in 2019. In 2020, its Premium Red Dunes & Camel Safari with BBQ was ranked the No. 1 experience in the world in the Tripadvisor Travellers' Choice Awards.
The recognition followed years of operational refinement in Dubai and was reported by the Government of Dubai Media Office. Dubai Police also issued a Certificate of Appreciation. By this stage, OceanAir's growth story was being validated by traveller reviews as well as operating scale.
A broader portfolio earns repeated awards
Tripadvisor recognition continued across multiple product categories. OceanAir experiences appeared in Travellers' Choice awards year after year, while Best of the Best placements put its desert and cultural products among the top 1% reviewed globally.
In 2022 and 2023, OceanAir products reached No. 1 Bucket List Experience worldwide. Its Dubai city tour also ranked among the world's leading Cultural & Historical Tours, while the Dubai-to-Abu Dhabi experience rose to No. 2 overall in the Middle East in 2023. These awards showed that the company was scaling beyond a single flagship product.
Abu Dhabi Becomes a major Growth Engine
By 2023, Abu Dhabi had become a major part of OceanAir's business. Experiences built around Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, Qasr Al Watan, Etihad Towers and Louvre Abu Dhabi grew into some of the highest-volume products in the portfolio.
At the same time, OceanAir continued to broaden what it could operate in the UAE. In 2024, the group expanded further into destination-led and overnight experiences in the desert, extending its capabilities beyond day tours and reinforcing the operating base from which international growth could be managed.
BUILDING CAPACITY FOR EXPANSION
From 2024 to 2026, OceanAir added more than 300 vehicles through partnerships with UAE-based businesses and operators. The fleet included 4x4s for desert operations, Mercedes Sprinters for city and Abu Dhabi tours, and heritage vehicles used across the UAE operation. During 2024–2025, the company also partnered with Al Rostomani for 130 vehicles. This investment in transport capacity mattered because international growth required a repeatable operating standard from the first pick-up to the last drop-off. By 2025, OceanAir was already describing operations beyond the UAE in Egypt, Qatar, Oman, Bosnia and Croatia, while its desert experiences remained among Tripadvisor's Best of the Best.
THE INTERNATIONAL FOOTPRINT TAKES SHAPE
By 2025, OceanAir's operating footprint was well established beyond the UAE into five additional countries: Qatar, Oman, Egypt, Bosnia and Croatia. The expansion map identifies Doha in Qatar and Muscat in Oman, while Egypt had developed into the broadest network outside the UAE, with operations across Cairo, Sharm El Sheikh, Alexandria, Hurghada and Luxor. In Europe, OceanAir was operating in Bosnia and in Dubrovnik, Croatia.
Together with Dubai and Abu Dhabi, the group describes a footprint of 10 cities across six countries. The significance of this stage is geographic as well as operational: OceanAir was moving from a business built around Dubai and Abu Dhabi into a multi-country tourism operator, carrying the same emphasis on locally delivered experiences, trained teams, transport and direct sales into each destination.
CONSOLIDATING SCALE
In 2026, OceanAir's Dubai-to-Abu Dhabi experience was ranked the No. 1 experience in the Middle East in Tripadvisor's Travellers' Choice Best of the Best, with a 5.0 rating from more than 10,000 reviews. The result followed earlier recognition: No. 2 in the Middle East in 2023 and a place among the world's leading Cultural & Historical Tours. Abu Dhabi had become one of the highest-volume parts of the portfolio.
At the same time, OceanAir was developing its in-house booking and operations platform. The system was designed to reduce manual coordination, track the traveller journey from discovery to payment and support operations across multiple locations. This technology became part of the infrastructure for the next stage of international expansion, allowing new destinations to be managed on a common operational backbone.
NORTH AFRICA AND SOUTHERN EUROPE
OceanAir's next expansion phase moves into North Africa and Southern Europe. Morocco is identified as the first new market in this wave, with Marrakech named as the first destination. Spain, Greece and Italy follow on the roadmap, with the company describing the intention to develop and operate its own experiences and sell them directly in each country.
The direction is a continuation of the geographic sequence already visible in the business: Dubai first, then Abu Dhabi, then nearby regional markets, followed by Bosnia and Croatia in Europe, and now a broader move westward into Morocco and the Mediterranean. The company states that its in-house platform is being built to run every destination it opens, linking operations from Dubai to Europe on one system.
A WIDER INTERNATIONAL ROADMAP
The expansion map extends beyond the four announced 2026+ markets. Marrakech is shown as the first destination in Morocco, while Spain, Greece and Italy are marked as upcoming markets for OceanAir-operated experiences. London also appears on the roadmap, linked to future hospitality concepts.
The map presents OceanAir's expansion as a progression from the UAE to the region, then to Europe and North Africa. Existing operations are shown across the UAE, Qatar, Oman, Egypt, Bosnia and Croatia; upcoming markets include Morocco, Spain, Greece, Italy and London. The company describes each new location as part of an international tourism network supported by direct sales, local operations and a shared technology platform. This is the clearest expression in the source material of where OceanAir intends to expand next.
