The Kingdom's Digital Tourism Strategy

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's Digital Tourism Strategy is a strategy aimed at adopting digital business models to increase demand for tourism services. It was launched by the Ministry of Tourism of the Kingdom on February 1, 2022, during the global technology event 'LEAP'.

The strategy includes the establishment of innovative regulations for smart hotels, providing seamless travel experiences for tourists, businessmen, and government officials, adopting flexible procedures for digital travel, encouraging the provision of new services, and establishing startups in the tourism sector. This will be achieved by leveraging artificial intelligence and data technologies to attract investors, enhancing the readiness of destinations, and highlighting available investment opportunities.

The Kingdom's Digital Tourism Strategy has received support from the World Tourism Organization, the World Bank, and digital partners. The strategy includes nine programs and thirty-one initiatives that will be implemented over three years, with completion expected by 2025. These programs and initiatives aim to develop a smart working environment that supports the digital transformation journey in the sector and provides a comprehensive platform to meet all needs, with a primary focus on customer satisfaction regarding available services.

The Kingdom's Digital Tourism Strategy aims to provide a seamless experience for tourists and stakeholders, supporting the prosperity of the tourism sector. The strategy focuses on several key pillars, including:

Seamless Travel: Providing digital solutions to simplify travel procedures.

Ease of Doing Business: Launching a unified platform to connect tourism service providers and their applications.

Innovation: Creating an interactive environment that allows tech innovators to test new digital tourism solutions.

Digital travel: Supporting extended reality applications for tourism (such as virtual reality and augmented reality).

Encouraging Sustainability: Rewarding tourists for environmentally friendly practices.

Informed decision-making: Developing solutions that allow for data collection and provide necessary analytics for the tourism sector.

Professional digital workforce: Creating a generation of professionals and entrepreneurs in the tourism sector.

Attracting investors: Building a network of investors in the tourism sector and engaging them through digital platforms.

The strategy involves developing a flexible and efficient system that supports the digital transformation journey of the sector and fosters a culture of innovation.

The Kingdom's Digital Tourism Strategy was developed in coordination with the Digital Government Authority and the Digital Transformation Unit. It was reviewed by an advisory council comprising twenty-two international experts in digital transformation and tourism. Additionally, the Ministry of Tourism developed a series of thirty-one standards aimed at enhancing the quality of tourism training. The ministry's digital training platform has been activated, with over 226,000 trainees registered. This platform offers training programs aimed at developing skills and improving work efficiency, benefiting more than 110,000 employees and job seekers.