Marriott continues to be a go-to choice for Saudi Arabia when it comes to operators for hotels within the giga-project portfolio. The U.S. hotel giant will be involved in every government-backed tourism project – the latest is an AlUla hotel.
Klook Partners with Saudi Arabia's Almosafer in New Tours Platform
25.08.2023 - 13:22 / skift.com / Selene Brophy
Saudi Arabia’s ambitious target to attract 100 million tourists a year, as part of its Vision 2030 to revive tourism, now has a new activities platform as part of its growth engine.
Almosafer Activities, set to launch in the third quarter of 2023, puts into effect an agreement between the Saudi Arabian travel company Almosafer, part of the Seera group, and Asian tours and activities marketplace, Klook.
The two travel companies signed the agreement in early 2022 to make local tours and activities more accessible and easier to book. Almosafer Activities expects to launch with 120 products under the categories of Attractions, Tours, Activities & Experiences, and Events across four regions, including Riyadh, Eastern Region, Makkah, and Madinah.
Almosafer hopes to use Klook’s market share as a travel and experiences platform in Asia and global distributor of experiences, much the same way GetYourGuide and Expedia, and TripAdvisor’s Viator and Bookings.com, have done in the U.S. and European markets.
The thinking behind the deal: Small- and medium-sized merchants in Saudi Arabia could benefit from exposure to local, regional, and international audiences. Distributors of Almosafer Activities – Klook being the first one – will have access to activities and experiences in Saudi Arabia.
The platform will further expose merchants to other companies under the Seera group’s travel umbrella, according to Muzzammil Ahussain, Almosafer CEO, who sees Klook as a key Asian market partner.
Klook’s partnership in Almosafer Activities brings the “technical strength” to connect the experiences sector and drive the digital transformation for tours and activities in the region, according to CS Soong, Klook vice president for corporate development.
He shared with Skift that with “numerous merchants in the pipeline,” the platform has the ambitious target of onboarding “over 90 percent of the market available offerings within the next 12 months.”
“Our goal is to help merchants and tour operators of all sizes digitize and streamline their business operations to be digital and future-ready,” said Soong.
This includes “convenient payment cycles and seamless online payments” as well as a dedicated merchants app for providers to manage their products. Added digital solutions the platform will offer, according to Soong, includes tools to manage inventory, ticketing, distribution to a global audience via Klook. It will also support local languages and multiple payment methods.
“For payment cycles, merchants can select flexible payment pay out terms such as 14 or 30 days. On the consumer side, consumers will be able to use over 40+ payment options available on Klook across 41 currencies including local payment wallets, integration
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