The kingdom’s tourism champion

Seera Group, a multi-faceted travel company, is synonymous with Saudi Arabia’s tourism transformation, says CEO Majed Alnefaie

Seera is a leading provider of diverse travel services in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Its portfolio of technology powered solutions for consumers, businesses, government partners and pilgrims provide opportunities to explore the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and to travel across the region and beyond. Its businesses include Almosafer, a travel brand catering to consumer, corporate, government and VIP travellers; the Lumi car rental and leasing brand; the Discover Saudi integrated destination management company; Mawasim, a wholesale tour operator for Hajj and Umrah; and Portman Travel Group – UK travel management for luxury, corporate, athletes and sports clubs. Here, Majed Alnefaie, CEO, Seera Group, explains how 2021 was a transformational year for the company, paving the way for success in 2022 as the company cements its status as the go-to company for the kingdom’s travel and tourism sector, contributing to the goals of Saudi Vision 2030.

Q: What have been the Seera Group’s key achievements over the past year?

In 2021, we pursued opportunities to leverage existing assets to drive maximum value. The group also spent time and resources on gaining sharp insights to better understand and serve travellers with tailored products and solutions post pandemic. Domestic leisure travel has grown to become a significant part of our business and will remain a key focus area since Saudi Arabia is the largest GCC market and our portfolio of businesses meet this demand.

Seera Group has also worked tirelessly with partners, suppliers and government stakeholders to facilitate the resumption of international travel and several projects were launched to support travel’s rebound in 2022.

Under our travel business, we launched Almosafer Chalets+ to provide a B2C marketplace for alternative accommodation that's in demand, including chalets, farms, villas and istirahas, significantly enhancing our service and product offerings.

We supported some of the biggest entertainment and government events in the kingdom, including Formula E and Dakar Rally, with Discover Saudi providing travel arrangements and ancillary services. Discover Saudi launched its online distribution platform that acts as a Saudi content intermediary for flights and hotels via API integrations with travel partners.

We also launched a new mobile application for Lumi, our car rental business, which cuts down the pick-up times from 15 minutes to less than five minutes, and launched our Harley Davidson bike rentals, catering to a growing number of bike aficionados.

We have also seen significant growth across the vast majority of our portfolio verticals, accelerated by the resumption of travel and tourism. We made key strategic partnerships, signing agreements with

Top: Flight bookings to Taif have doubled

Tourism Development Fund (TDF), MOMRAH, and AMANA Al Baha to develop the Clarion Al Baha Resort; and signed a joint venture agreement with AlUla Development Company (UDC) to develop a Clarion hotel. We also joined hands with Princess Noura Bint Abdulrahman University to provide training courses to Travel and Tourism Management students.

The past year has been transformational for Seera and we worked tirelessly to overcome the challenges that have come our way, enabling us to step into 2022 stronger and better positioned.

Q: What are the top travel trends you are witnessing?

The first quarter of 2022 has shown us one trend quite distinctly – the appetite for travel is bigger than ever.

Our consumer platforms witnessed an increase in flight bookings of more than 70% during this period compared to Q1 2019, which was the strongest year overall pre-pandemic. However, even with international travel resumed, domestic hotel bookings comprised around 40% of total bookings in Q1 2022.

In terms of inbound, we have seen increased interest in destinations across the kingdom and with the easing of travel restrictions for Hajj and Umrah, we have also seen a surge in interest for our Umrah+ packages whereby pilgrims are combining Umrah with leisure trips. Overall, we are very confident that 2022 will be a successful year for the region’s travel industry. This is already indicated by the growth of international travel bookings in Q1 2022, which are 117% higher than the same period in 2021.

Our recent Almosafer consumer booking data reveals consumer behaviour has changed. People remain slightly cautious when booking their trips leading to shorter booking windows of 10 days in 2022 compared to 18 days in 2019. Travellers are also taking shorter trips, with the average length of stays in hotels lasting 2.9 days in 2022 compared to 3.25 days in 2019, which may be attributed, at least in part, to a rising trend of people taking more frequent but shorter trips.

Q: Which destinations are growing in popularity in Saudi Arabia?

Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam remain among the most popular destinations due to their flourishing events scene and lively cultural attractions, Almosafer consumer booking data reveals.

With the lifting of restrictions on international pilgrims, we have seen a huge surge in interest in the two Holy Cities of Makkah and Madinah from people seeking to perform Umrah, especially from new feeder source markets in Central Asia.

Our data also reveals the rising stars of the kingdom – those where flights and hotels bookings are fast growing in Q1 2022 compared to Q1 2019. We have seen almost double the number of flight bookings for Taif, known for its fragrant roses; triple the number of hotel bookings in Jizan, gateway to Farasan Islands; and an increase of 63% in hotel bookings in Al Khobar, an art and culture powerhouse. AlUla has been of particular rising interest to inbound and domestic travellers as the home to a UNESCO World Heritage Site and prestigious events.

Q: What is your growth strategy?

Almosafer will continue to consolidate its position as the leading omni-channel travel brand in the region for consumer, corporate and government, and VIP travel.

In the consumer segment, we are the largest consumer brand in the kingdom and Kuwait and a strong player in the UAE, and we will work to further grow our market share across these and other markets, including Bahrain.

To fulfil our vision of becoming a full travel journey companion, we have introduced differentiated products.

We are expanding our Chalets+ marketplace as there is a huge opportunity in the domestic alternative accommodation space.

Our joint venture with travel activities and services booking platform Klook will create a one-stop shop digital platform for activities, tours, and events across

IN NUMBERS

GROUP

3,700 employees across 7 locations

1mn+ hotels and 400+ airlines available across the Seera portfolio

5 businesses

ALMOSAFER

6mn room nights booked since 2018

5mn app downloads

45 and counting retail stores

6mn passengers on 10mn+ flight segments since 2018

1mn+ social media followers

2.5mn+ registered customers LUMI

17,500+ vehicles DISCOVER SAUDI

20,000 tourists brought to the kingdom since 2019

Saudi Arabia. Under Almosafer, we are also pursuing fintech opportunities such as instant financing (buy now, pay later) to capture more customer segments and boost our average order value.

Furthermore, we will be supporting the Saudi Tourism Authority and the kingdom’s tourism agenda to further develop outbound, inbound and domestic tourism, starting with human capital development via our Almosafer Academy. In terms of the corporate and government and VIP segments, we will be rolling out Almosafer Concierge to cater to VIP clients in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait and Bahrain.

Turning to Discover Saudi, in line with KSA's ambitious Vision 2030 tourism targets to attract 100 million visitors annually by 2030, we want to become the primary destination management company for inbound tourism.

We are actively promoting Saudi Arabia, particularly to travel agents, in order to build on our success of bringing in around 20,000 tourists since 2019.

We seek to onboard more agents to our online distribution portal, the go-to platform for Saudi products and services including flights, hotels and other services, which utilises API integrations to distribute travel content at scale.

For our MICE activities, we want to strengthen our position as the destination management company of choice for largescale travel support. There is huge potential for the car rental industry and Lumi is growing at immense speed. Backed by a solid pipeline of long-term lease contracts, we are positioning Lumi as an innovator and disruptor in the industry with a digitalfirst approach across our distributed rental network with remote vehicle monitoring and control. We are also expanding our luxury fleet offering with Harley Davidson bike rentals across the kingdom.

With the lifting of restrictions on Hajj and Umrah travel for international pilgrims, Mawasim will be catering to the rising demand and capitalising on new and upcoming source markets, backed by its endto-end travel services and access to limited inventory in Makkah and Madinah.

Seera has one main goal: to maintain and further grow its position as the national champion and one of the key investors and enablers of Vision 2030’s tourism agenda. Seera has long been synonymous with the kingdom’s transformational journey and we will continue to drive the tourism agenda forward as an investor and enabler for some of the most innovative and aspirational businesses in the market.

Q: How does Seera Group contribute to the growth of Saudi Arabia’s tourism industry?

The growth of Saudi Arabia’s tourism industry can be attributed to the efforts of the entire travel and tourism ecosystem in promoting the kingdom as the destination of choice, in line with Vision 2030. The tourism industry has grown hand in hand with the entertainment industry.

The explosion of entertainment and sports events such as Riyadh Season and F1, has given a significant boost to domestic and inbound tourism.

The reopening of Umrah travel has also kick-started religious tourism once again. Major international hotel chains have recognised the opportunities in Saudi Arabia, and have opened, or committed to opening, hotels across the country.

While there is considerable growth in the number of hotels catering to the highend market, the mid-market sector is also growing, in part due to increasing demand from Hajj and Umrah travellers coming from source markets that are not luxury driven. Domestic tourism is also driving the demand for mid-market hotels as an increasing number of people travel within the country for events such as music festivals and are seeking basic amenities as opposed to a luxury experience.

We are capitalising on this demand, having signed numerous partnerships to build new hotels in AlUla and in Al Baha which will be managed by Choice Hotels Middle East (CHME), the master developer and operator of Choice Hotels, while also further expanding our own portfolio of properties in the kingdom.

Almost three years since the launch of Saudi Arabia’s tourist visa, the kingdom remains unexplored for many due to the global pandemic. Destination management companies (DMCs) are playing a huge role, not only in driving inbound tourism, but also in creating knowledge about the destination, educating travel agents on the culture and attractions of the country.

Discover Saudi is going above and beyond the remit of a general DMC, not only connecting with international source markets to drive inbound tourism, but also supporting MICE activities in the kingdom, thereby bolstering entertainment industry and infrastructure development.

The growing demand for car rentals is due to multiple factors: women have been permitted to drive, inbound and domestic tourism is flourishing and people are keen to explore the many events happening across our kingdom, or to discover the vast leisure tourism offering across the country.

Car rentals additionally provide people with a mode of transport to explore the country and attend events domestically.

Seera Group is the go-to company for the kingdom’s travel and tourism sector, contributing to the goals of Saudi Vision 2030. From creating digital platforms that connect consumers with a wide range of services and products and providing logistical support for major events, to developing human capital with dedicated training programmes and educating an international audience on the kingdom’s incredible tourism attractions, the group has made its mark on Saudi Arabia’s tourism industry and will continue to do so in the future.

The fast increase in pet adoptions is paired with a habit of having pets as daily companions. Rabbits are a recent new breed of pet flown by VistaJet, and while dogs continue to make up the majority of animal passengers, the number of cats spiked 357% from 2019 to 2020”

MATTEO ATTI EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT OF MARKETING AND INNOVATION, VISTAJET

The five mostsearched‘bucket-list’ experiences?

1.Visiting the Burj Khalifa, Dubai

2 Sailing around the Statue of Liberty, New York

3. Hiking to Mount Everest Base Camp, Nepal

4.Cruising the River Nile, Egypt

5.Going to the top of the Eiffel Tower, Paris and share their discoveries with the world.

20.9%

The average annual growth rate of wellness tourism from 2020-2025

7/10

Business travellers aged 25 to 30 want to extend work trips for mini vacations