TravTalk Middle East Online Magazine
In a move to accelerate and future proof the kingdom’s tourism sector, Saudi Arabia recently announced its digital tourism strategy for the next three years targeting 10 percent of GDP contribution from the sector.
Shehara Rizly
As the kingdom of Saudi Arabia sets to attract global talent, build the next generation of digital tourism skills and create job opportunities with the aim to become global leaders in digital tourism, this move has been endorsed by the UNWTO and World Bank. Over the past years, research carried out by various travel technology companies revealed that the kingdom of Saudi Arabia was ahead in the use of mobile technology for bookings pre-covid time. The Ministry of Tourism is pioneering nine innovative programmes consisting of 31 core initiatives by 2025 – positively impacting residents, visitors, investors and the public and private sectors. These programmes will accelerate the Kingdom’s National Tourism Strategy and Vision 2030 targets, including 100 million new visits, tourism’s 10 per cent GDP contribution and 1 million new tourism jobs.
His Excellency Ahmed Al Khateeb, Minister of Tourism of Saudi Arabia said: “The Digital Tourism Strategy will help us to redesign tourism in the Kingdom and achieve Vision 2030 objectives of having Saudi Arabia become a world-leading tourist destination. The Kingdom’s execution of this strategy over the next three years will inspire the tourism sector globally.”
The Digital Tourism Strategy aims to position the Kingdom as the global digital tourism leader. Application of the Strategy aims to provide stakeholders a more seamless experience, that enables a thriving tourism sector. The strategy focuses on a number of areas:
- Seamless Travel: Providing digital solutions to simplify travel procedures
- Ease of Doing Business: Launching a unified platform to connect tourism service providers and applications
- Innovation: Creating an experimental environment that will allow technology innovators to test new digital tourism solutions
- Digital Travel: Supporting tourism extended reality applications (e.g. virtual or augmented reality)
- Encouraging Sustainability: Rewarding tourists for eco-friendly behaviors
- Informed Decision Making: Building solutions that gather data and provide analytics for the tourism sector
- Skilled Digital Workforce: Creating a generation of tourism professionals and entrepreneurs
- Investor Attraction: Establish & engage a network of tourism investors through digital platforms
To achieve this, the strategy will deliver programmes promoting a Kingdom-wide culture of innovation and future-proof curbs. It will boost workforce skills to strengthen the labor market and lure innovators by providing a safe environment. A dedicated programme will target upskilling and reskilling the tourism workforce to increase the employability rate of Saudi Arabia and enable the next generation of entrepreneurs.
The Ministry of Tourism will pioneer new digital business models to increase market demand for service providers. The new models will include disruptive regulations for smart hotels and streamlined methods of digital travel, thus creating a frictionless travel experience for tourists, business classes and governments.
