Tag Archives: Seera Group

Seera Group announced today the signing of a master hotels development agreement, a joint venture to manage and develop hotels in various projects developed by Kaden Investment throughout Saudi Arabia. The first hotel will be launched at Riyadh Front. An extraordinary urban experience in the heart of the capital, Riyadh Front is a mega-development set to transform the future of business and leisure in Riyadh, across the Kingdom, and beyond. As the region’s growing economic hub, Riyadh is the perfect location for business events and with the introduction of fast and easy visas, the city is now ready to welcome greater numbers of travelers than ever before. Bringing to the table 40 years of travel and tourism legacy and drawing on regional expertise in developing and operating hotels, Seera Group is perfectly placed to provide travelers with the quality mid-market hotel accommodations they need, all backed by Choice’s global hotel platform and brand reputation for value and service. Aimed to lead the industry towards better experiences, Kaden Investment is a real-estate developer with a track record of delivering long-term projects, notably Riyadh Front and The Logistics Park, which are both regarded as the most successful projects to emerge in a short span of time. Majed Alnefaie, CEO of Seera Group, said, “Simplifying the business travel experience, and making it an enjoyable and rewarding one, has always been one of our goals. Riyadh’s business hub market is full of potential – we have plenty of managerial experience and local resources in the domestic and international market, while Kaden Investments is an outstanding establishment in hotel development locally. We look forward to this partnership to tap into the Kingdom’s business market and …

Seera Group has extended its long-standing partnership with Amadeus to adopt NDC. As the Middle East’s leading provider of travel and tourism services, Seera Group will join Amadeus’ NDC [X] program and implement the NDC-enabled Travel API solution to distribute richer airline products to its customers. It will allow the selling of new fares and services to customers that are only available via NDC. Customers are at the core of everything the Seera Group does, and integrating NDC efficiently within its workflow, online and offline, will help the group’s travel brands differentiate its offers with more relevant options, better fares and availability, as well as post-booking servicing capabilities. Speaking about the extension, Tarique Khatri, EVP at Seera Group, said, “Amadeus has been a long-term technology partner of Seera. We have been working together successfully to drive innovation in the region and provide our customers access to new, dynamic airline content that includes more tailored services. Amadeus has always been at the forefront of cutting-edge technology for our industry, and working together to implement NDC was a natural extension of this partnership. We are confident that NDC will help us personalize our offer, open up new opportunities to upsell, and really elevate our customer experience.” Bernhard Steffens, Senior Vice President of Business Travel Agencies in Europe, Middle East and Africa said, “For a brand like Seera Group that focuses on customer centricity, the adoption of NDC makes perfect sense. It will help add tremendous value to its travelers, and cement Seera’s place at the forefront of travel innovation in the Middle East. With NDC taking off in the industry, Seera Group understood it was the opportune time to partner with us …

Lumi, the car rental business of Seera Group, is expanding its retail service network in Saudi Arabia, having won the bid to open counters at Jeddah King Abdulaziz International Airport, Ta’if Regional Airport, and Al-Baha Domestic Airport in Saudi Arabia. These join the current network of 8 airport counters and the total network of 26 branches in the region. Azfar Shakeel, Vice President of Lumi, said, “Winning the bid to open airport counters at three major airports in the Kingdom is an important step in the expansion of our network, and reinforces us as the preferred car rental partner. The airport counters will serve international visitors as well as domestic customers seeking convenience, value, and service. Our goal is to sustain our market leadership through innovative services that meet the requirements of our growing base of government clients, corporates, families, and individuals.”

Seera Group has signed a global agreement with Hilton. The direct connectivity distribution agreement with Hilton will provide Seera Group customers access to the hotel chain’s current global portfolio of more than 6,300 properties in 118 countries and territories at affordable rates. The agreement also enables Seera to promote destinations where these hotels are located to visitors from Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Bahrain, Kuwait, and beyond. Abdullah Al-Dawood, Group CEO of Seera Group, said, “As the leading travel and tourism company in the Middle East region, we have consistently focused on redefining the hospitality experience and setting new industry benchmarks. Through our partnership with Hilton, we are expanding our hotel portfolio that will accelerate our business growth and enable our customers to enjoy exceptional hospitality experiences across a wide destination network.” Commenting on the signing, Stijn Bastiaens, Vice President and Commercial Director, Middle East, Africa and Turkey, Hilton, said, “We are delighted to have signed the direct connectivity distribution agreement which allows us access to Seera’s overseas offices, as well as additional channels such as Almosafer. Hilton and Seera Group have worked together for more than 15 years and this agreement brings even further value to our partnership. We look forward to offering Seera’s guests exceptional experiences at our properties, all backed by our global Hilton CleanStayprogramme which provides travellers with enhanced standards of cleanliness during all aspects of their stay with us.”

Seera Group signed an exclusive GCC partnership with Experience Hub, a subsidiary of Miral and the trade and promotion arm of Yas Island Abu Dhabi, one of the fastest growing leisure and entertainment destinations globally. The agreement will see the two entities work together to train Seera’s agents and sales associates on the iconic attractions in the UAE capital city and drive further visitations from Kuwait and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. A comprehensive calendar of virtual training activities has been lined-up to cover the various attractions on Yas Island Abu Dhabi, enabling Seera to promote these destinations further to its consumer travel customer base. Another initiative by Seera Group to foster strong industry linkages to support the recovery of the travel and tourism sector, the partnership is expected to drive stronger visitor footfalls to Abu Dhabi from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Muzzammil Ahussain, EVP of Consumer Travel at Seera Group, said, “Abu Dhabi is one of the fast-growing destinations of choice for visitors from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Through our partnership with Experience Hub, we are offering our sales associates and travel agents more insights into the diverse aspects of Yas Island. As we prepare for travel and tourism activity to reopen and flourish, such virtual training programmes will not only keep our teams motivated but also accelerate the sector’s growth.” Liam Findlay, General Manager of Experience Hub, said: “The GCC is a key source market for Yas Island and our first priority in welcoming back international visitors to the destination. Our aim at Experience Hub is to forge deeper relationships with our partners through collaboration and resource-sharing so that together we can rebuild consumer confidence and foster growth …

Seera Group announced the launch of elaa 3.0, a digital travel management solution that has been designed to optimise corporate and government travel bookings across Saudi Arabia. A new dedicated portal has been launched for elaa, Seera’s travel management company, that enables employees of partner organisations to make all their bookings and travel planning seamlessly without having to go through a tedious and costly manual process. This means reduced cost through higher levels of transparency, pre-defined policy setting and travel management efficiency. Elaa made the most of the downtime caused by travel restrictions during the pandemic by digitising and simplifying the processes and enabling continuous improvement and innovation for its partner companies across private and public sectors. Making travel management self-sufficient, the new improved platform can digitally connect everything for customers whilst supporting them in the new normal, as travel management policies, structures and strategies have changed following the COVID-19 pandemic. Government ministries, departments and corporates with large-scale travel management requirements, can now manage all their requirements through elaa’s new portal, which is designed as a flexible and scalable booking platform that is easy to navigate and time, as well as cost-efficient. Abdulrahman Mutrib, Executive Vice President & Group Chief Technology Officer of Seera Group, said, “The new reality has brought a significant change in the travel requirements of corporate and government entities. Travel policies are constantly being updated or reviewed, and only a Travel Management System that can factor in these changes in real-time can add true value to organisations. Over the past years, we have been investing significantly in digitising our processes, and we are now ready to offer the next-generation TMS system for our customers.”

Seera Group has launched a new data portal for industry partners, which offers comprehensive insights on future searches, bookings and traveller behaviour. The portal has been designed to enable tourism boards and other industry partners to further understand the customer journey at every touchpoint and make projections for strategic campaigns. Louise Blake, VP of Data and Analytics at Seera Group said, “These insights will enable a deeper understanding of the target audience and behaviours, helping our partners deliver further value. Through this portal, traveller preferences and activities can be tracked by VisitBritain, which will help them to foster a deeper experience for the guests by providing an enhanced personalised journey.” Sofia Santos, Country Manager GCC for VisitBritain, said, “Tourism is also an extremely competitive global industry and initiatives such as Seera’s innovative insights portal, supporting us to access real-time data on travellers’ preferences and future booking patterns, will help to position Britain as the destination of choice for visitors from Saudi Arabia when the time comes to promote travel once more working with strategic partners across the region.” Abdullah Aldawood, CEO of Seera Group added, “During these times, where the travel sector has faced an unprecedented level of impact due to COVID-19, it is more important than ever that industry partners come together to support each other and create an enhanced experience for travellers. We’re delighted to strengthen our association with VisitBritain, which will support its goal in positioning Britain as a destination of choice for the region’s travellers. It will be of tremendous value, especially as travel returns to normalcy, and travellers will invariably have new preferences in terms of how and where they travel to, stay and spend …

Amadeus and Seera Group have strengthened their partnership to drive technology innovation in the region’s tourism sector. This follows a year of successful partnership between the two leading entities that led to significant digital transformation of travel and tourism services offered by Seera Group and helped enhance its all-round business efficiency. With the renewed partnership, Seera Group works closely with Amadeus to strengthen its online business further, integrating digital touch-points across all its operations, including its flagship corporate and government travel business, elaa. As the travel tech provider across Seera’s diverse portfolio of services, Amadeus brings cutting-edge innovation and state-of-the-art tech tools that enhance customer service standards and bring higher operational efficiency across the Group. In other highlights of the successful partnership, Amadeus is supporting Seera Group in expanding its omni-channel consumer travel business, Almosafer, across Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and beyond, in addition to the ongoing digitisation of booking services for corporate and government travel via elaa. Amadeus has been an ongoing strategic partner of Seera Group and has provided a host of technical support that helped consolidate the Group’s online business through tools such as Touchless that scaled up its efficiency of operations. Seera will implement the latest Amadeus solutions relating to hotel content, virtual credit card payment capabilities, fare optimisation solutions and content via NDC (New Distribution Capability) connectivity. The Group will also implement new products by Amadeus to enhance operational efficiency.

Seera Group unveiled the Kingdom’s first-of-its-kind integrated Destination Management Company (DMC), under the brand name, ‘Discover Saudi,’ at the World Travel Market (WTM) in London. Set to catalyse international inbound tourism as well as domestic tourism, Discover Saudi, a SAR500 million investment by Seera Group supports the goals of Saudi Vision 2030 to transform tourism as one of the key economic growth sectors. It will complement the goal of welcoming over 100 million annual overnight visitors and increasing the share of tourism to the Kingdom’s GDP to 10 per cent by 2030. The brand identity and strategic outlook of Discover Saudi were unveiled on the sidelines of WTM by Abdullah Al-Dawood, Board Member and Group CEO of Seera Group, he said, “The launch of Discover Saudi is part of our SAR1 billion investment in driving tourism development in the Kingdom with a distinctive value proposition. This marks our strong commitment to supporting the goals of Saudi Vision 2030 announced by our leadership. Discover Saudi will have a multiplier effect on the economy; not only will we create a robust infrastructure to support destination tourism services, but also work with Saudi travel operators and government agencies, creating additional value to the economy and promoting job creation for Saudis.” With its focus on developing the Kingdom’s tourism ecosystem, driven by the US$300 billion capex allocated for tourism development until 2030, Discover Saudi addresses a clear white space in the industry today, with only 2 per cent of inbound trips being for leisure. In addition to offering curated experiences for international and domestic travellers, the new DMC will also focus on offering Hajj & Umrah pilgrims who are keen to explore Saudi as …

Seera Group has joined hands with Disneyland Paris to strengthen travel demand from Saudi Arabia, the wider GCC and North Africa to Paris. With this new alliance, Seera is now a General Sales Agent for Saudi Arabia and the wider GCC as well as North Africa, Lebanon and Jordan. Seera will sell Disney packages that include hotel accommodation and park entry across all its platforms, including corporate and government travel platforms – both driven through Elaa, the group’s specialised travel management business, as well as directly to send consumers through Almosafer, Seera’s flagship brand, and Tajawal, the UAE-focused online travel booking platform. Seera will also create customised packages covering flight and ancillary products to create added value for its customers. Seera’s customised packages for Disneyland Paris will also be made available to third-party travel agencies in all these markets. Abdullah Bin Nasser Aldawood, Chief Executive Officer, Seera Group, said, “At Seera, our customers are at the heart of our business and we are committed to offering them the widest range of services to enhance their holiday experiences. Our partnership with Disneyland Paris is designed to make unforgettable memories for family visitors from the region.” Brigid McDonnell, Head of Sales at Disney Destinations International, said, “Every year, we create Disney Memories that will last a lifetime for guests coming from different horizons, and we are so pleased to develop our new partnership with Seera to give this opportunity to Saudi families eager to visit us.” With this partnership, Seera aims to broaden the range of properties and holiday packages that are available in Paris considered as one of the top 10 destinations of Saudi travellers.