Britain’s tourism offer in spotlight in Saudi Arabia as VisitBritain leads tourism delegation as part of upcoming GREAT FUTURES trade expo in Riyadh

Britain’s visitor offer will be taking centre stage in Saudi Arabia in May with VisitBritain leading a tourism delegation as part of GREAT FUTURES, a major trade expo being held by the UK Government’s GREAT campaign in partnership with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s Government.

GREAT FUTURES, taking place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia from 14-15 May, launches a year-long campaign to drive business engagement between the UK and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. 

VisitBritain is hosting a ‘Destination Showcase’ and networking event, led by its Chairman Nick de Bois, during GREAT FUTURES. It will see British destinations and destination management companies meeting with top travel trade representatives from Saudi Arabia, hearing first-hand about the motivations and trends driving outbound travel. British destinations will also be showcasing their latest tourism offers, products and experiences, broadening travel itineraries so Saudi visitors explore more of Britain, stay longer and to come now. 

VisitBritain’s Chairman and CEO Patricia Yates are also taking part in panel and roundtable discussions with representatives from across the UK’s tourism industry alongside Saudi counterparts at GREAT FUTURES, sharing insights, knowledge and experience on topics including promoting a country globally.

VisitBritain CEO Patricia Yates said:

“It is great to see tourism taking centre-stage at the upcoming GREAT FUTURES event in Saudi Arabia, a valuable opportunity to showcase Britain’s visitor offer and to forge business connections with top Saudi travel representatives.

“Visiting the UK is easier than ever for Saudi nationals with the roll-out of the Electronic Travel Authorisation Scheme, boosting our competitive tourism offer and our welcome to visitors. GREAT FUTURES will support us to drive growth from this valuable visitor market and to strengthen our longer-term relationships with Saudi trade partners. 

“It also builds on our wider engagement in Saudi Arabia, from our ongoing work with the travel trade to sell British destinations to our GREAT Britain marketing campaigns to inspire more Saudis to choose Britain for their next trip.”

VisitBritain is shortly kicking off the latest phase of its GREAT Britain marketing campaign in Saudi Arabia, underway from 8 May in the run-up to GREAT FUTURES, showcasing Britain’s warm welcome and exciting experiences and destinations for Saudi travellers to explore across Britain’s countryside, coast and vibrant cities. The advertising campaign ‘Spilling the tea on GREAT Britain’ is using digital and social channels including a custom-built ‘Explore Britain’ lens on Snapchat developed specifically for the Saudi audience. All activity will drive consumers to VisitBritain’s new dedicated Arabic website, launching early May, in the lead up to GREAT FUTURES, inspiring visitors to plan their travel to Britain in 2024 and signposting to the UK’s Electronic Travel Authorisation Scheme for Saudi nationals. 

VisitBritain is also working with partners in market including online travel marketplace Wego to convert the interest to visit Britain into bookings now.

Saudi Arabia is a very important visitor market for the UK. VisitBritain’s latest forecast predicts 240,000 visits from Saudi Arabia to the UK this year, up 9% on 2019. It is forecasting that visitors from Saudi Arabia will spend £752 million on their trips to the UK this year, up 20% on 2019. 

ENDS:

Notes to editors:

• GREAT FUTURES is a major business, tourism and cultural expo being held by the UK Government’s GREAT Britain and Northern Ireland campaign in partnership with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s Government from 14-15 May in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.  The event launches a year-long campaign to drive business engagement between the UK and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. 
• VisitBritain’s ‘Spilling the tea on GREAT Britain’ advertising campaign gets underway on 8 May and will run to 31 May. Using Arabic-only assets, VisitBritain’s advertising campaign will run across paid digital platforms including, digital display, online video, mobile and social channels in Saudi Arabia. It also sees the launch of a new augmented reality Snapchat lens, featuring a 180-degree views of the countryside and coastal landscapes in Britain to inspire travel and drive the campaign’s reach and engagement during GREAT FUTURES and beyond.
• VisitBritain’s latest statistics show that visitors from Saudi Arabia stay longer in the UK than the overall visitor average, 10 nights compared to the overall average of eight, and spend more, an average of £2477 per trip, three times the overall visitor average.