India to be Saudi Arabia's largest source market

In its bid to increase tourist arrivals to 100 million by 2030, Saudi Arabia has zeroed into India as the go-to market to get there. Alhasan Aldabbagh, President of APAC Markets at Saudi Tourism Authority, tells India Outbound that he is targetting to increase Indian arrivals from 1 million in 2022 to 2 million this year and 12 million by 2030, making India its biggest source market.

- Ranvir Nayar

Q What is your strategy in India?

We have identified a strategy for India and it always starts by knowing, who do you want to target and then what do you offer them and how do you promote it? So as far as Indian travellers go, we are targetting people who are seeking culture, heritage, adventure, oneness with nature and we are also targetting people who are looking for entertainment.

In terms of segments, there are different segments. There is the Middle East Plus. We know, for example, that there are two million Indians who go to the UAE. So this is a big segment that we are targetting. We also know that there are close to 6 million people who travel from India to Europe and to the United States. This creates an excellent opportunity for a stopover programme. And of course, there are the religious travellers, people who come to Saudi Arabia for Umrah and Haj.