Less people are buying in favour of hiring cars in the Emirates, bucking the downward trend of the global travel industry.

The British ‘staycation’ trend of 2009 has spread to the Middle East, where an increasing number of people are steering clear of buying new vehicles over job and financial security fears, leaving car rental companies happy to fill the driving void.

The stay at home vacation means that the car hire sector is one of a rare few that is booming while other travel industry areas continue to take punishment. In the last year, revenue from car rentals across the UAE totalled Dh669 million (£125 million), a six per cent increase that continues to grow. The UAE’s 742 car rental providers processed two million transactions across a combined fleet of around 45,600 vehicles according to data released from market analysts Euromonitor. They further predict that the industry will continue growing until at least 2014, where estimated revenue of Dh880m is predicted.

National Car Rental’s general manager, Sumit Chopra, said revenues and bookings were up by 10 per cent compared to last year, while the Sharjah Airport Dollar Rent a Car manager Shariel Asazo said that renters were increasingly from within Sharjah as opposed to the traditional fly-in bookers.

The World Tourism Organisation has reported that 31 per cent of residents in the UAE are favouring domestic tourism, a leap of 20 per cent from the same period in 2009. Dubai is the most popular domestic destination, followed by Abu Dhabi.