Saudi Tourism Authority Bets Big On India

In line with Saudi’s Vision 2030 and to welcome more than 2 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, this mission program featured a range of meetings, industry round-tables and networking events including participation at the One World Travel Market in Mumbai (OTM) and the South Asian Travel and Tourism Exchange (SATTE) in Delhi. This was followed up with two roadshows in Mumbai and Ahmedabad. Saudi Tourism Authority (STA) has also, commenced an official partnership with Twenty 20 cricket league, the TATA Indian Premier League (IPL) at an event held in Mumbai last week.

As part of Saudi’s ambition to achieve 100 million visits annually by 2030, STA held 3,000 plus meetings with leading trade partners and travel buyers to promote Saudi as a holiday destination.

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.”