Demand for Saudi Arabia picking up pace in India

Saudi Tourism has upped its activities in India over the past few years and its efforts to promote different aspects of the country to attract Indian visitors are bearing fruit, Meshaal Qureshi, Senior Director - Trade (India & Subcontinent Market), Saudi Tourism Authority (STA), tells India Outbound. Qureshi, who was recently in India for a 3-city roadshow, adds that Saudi Arabia is already seeing increasing demand for destinations like Medina and King Khaled Economic City.

- VARSHA SINGH

How has the response been to the three-city roadshow of Saudi Tourism?

It has been amazing in a lot of ways. We have always been engaged with these regions, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad, but also Gujarat as a whole and of course, Delhi. With amount of offerings and the kinds of new products which are coming in, the market is actually picking up and the awareness and the consideration of Saudi has increased tremendously. We could see that by the bookings we have closed in our roadshow this time.

We have secured a large group of members of the Young Professionals Organisation from Ahmedabad who chose Saudi as their next retreat, not a vacation retreat, but a business one. So that is the difference which we saw this time in the market, that our efforts are bearing fruits and people are attracted to Saudi. And the latest Saudi campaigns have created a hype in the market.

What kind of feedback did you get from Ahmedabad and Hyderabad, which are Tier II cities?

They might be Tier II cities, but they are among the top eight source cities and that is why we get into very detailed analysis into this and what kind of segments we are targetting, is there a direct connectivity and how can we make the customers’ journey seamless.