In line with Saudi’s Vision 2030 and to welcome more than two million Indian visitors this year, Saudi Tourism Authority (STA) has strengthened its commitments to driving awareness about tourism and hospitality in its region.
As part of the delegation visit to India earlier this month, this mission program featured a range of meetings, industry round-tables and networking events.
This was followed up with two roadshows in Mumbai and Ahmedabad. STA has also, commenced an official partnership with the world’s preeminent Twenty 20 Cricket League, the TATA Indian Premier League (IPL) at an event held in Mumbai.
While interacting with Indian stakeholders, Alhasan Aldabbagh, APAC President at Saudi Tourism Authority, said: “We have received an overwhelmingly positive response from our partners here and STA is committed to investing, learning and working closely with them to ensure our product offerings are attractive for the Indian market.”
“These engagements are important in helping us achieve ambitious goals and drive visitation numbers from India to Saudi. Last year, we saw 1 million visitors, which has encouraged us to become ambitious about doubling the figures from this region this year. India, we believe, will be the number one tourism source market for us in 2030 as we aim to welcome more than 12 million visitors by then.”
Saudi is a great holiday destination with rich cultural, historical and spiritual sites. It is home to 6 UNESCO world heritage sites and more than 10,000 archaeological sites that are unexplored and that we are waiting to be explored. This includes historical places like Al Balad in Jeddah and Turaif in Diriyah – the birthplace of Saudi.
“We also offer a variety of tourism experiences such as the Boulevard World in Riyadh city, Bujairi Terrace home to over 20 retail and lifestyle brands including four Michelin-starred restaurants, Red Sea Project and much more. Apart from our tourism product offerings, we are also working on many exciting partnership and sponsorship opportunities like the IPL. We believe that the partnership with IPL is one of the first steps in strengthening a culture for the game of cricket in Saudi.” Alhasan Aldabbagh added.
