Tourism & Hospitality | Wednesday 27 July, 2016 7:07 am |

A recent study estimated that growth in travel to and from Saudi Arabia will rise in 2017 by 25 percent in 2016, to about 36 percent, out of the total of travel bookings in the Middle East.
The study pointed out that the Kingdom enjoys the highest travel rates in the region, with the average trips of youth belonging to the middle and wealthy classes at between four and five trips annually, the majority of them within the Gulf region.
Travelport Universal API, which operates booking engines on the Internet, said the value of Saudi bookings online amounted to $35 billion.
Ibrahim El Mohandes, regional manager of Travelport in Saudi Arabia, said travel technologies are reshaping the way one searches for travel choices and the way of selling and buying them on global level.
He said the Travelport platform provides travel and cooperative networks that help customers make better choices, which in turn supports the growth of travel and tourism via the Internet.