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A short while ago, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was not open for international tourism – visas were only available to religious pilgrims as well as foreign workers and their dependents. In 2016, the government formulated Saudi Vision 2030, a strategic framework to diversify the economy and develop public service sectors including tourism. Over the last few years, Saudi has made major investments in creating a new hospitality landscape to enhance the country’s attractiveness as a tourist destination.
In order to welcome 100 million foreign visitors by 2030 as pledged in the Saudi Vision plan, the Saudi Ministry of Tourism needed a wide-reaching strategy that unified various internal entities, external partners, and other stakeholders. Given our presence and expertise in the region, the Ministry of Tourism entrusted AWE Research to provide ongoing support in a structured yet nimble manner across an expansive scope of work to help them meet their tourism goals by focusing on the following:
AWE dedicated a skilled team of qualitative and quantitative researchers, data processors, and a lead regional expert to formulate a comprehensive approach that would effectively and simultaneously address the Ministry of Tourism’s most pressing needs.
Measuring the perception of Saudi Arabia in the eyes of visitors:
The AWE team set out to understand travelers’ perceptions of Saudi before and after their visit. Our main objective was to learn how their opinions shifted and understand the key drivers behind that change so we could then decide on content development that would address their concerns, set expectations, and otherwise best empower them to plan enjoyable trips in Saudi Arabia.
We executed 30 in-depth interviews with key target audiences including potential visitors (segmented), travelers who have previously visited Saudi Arabia, and expatriates living in the country. We also referenced data from our quantitative online study that sampled over 500 visitors who had traveled to Saudi after the e-visa launch.
Testing and implementing an effective e-visa process:
Concurrently, we assessed the performance of key touchpoints across the visitor arrival journey to identify areas for improvement and “moments of truth” throughout the visa application process, setting the stage for a positive, memorable travel experience.
We facilitated 40 end-to-end mystery visits with travelers from Europe, Asia, USA/Canada, Oceania, and the GCC to appraise three visa application frameworks (Pre-arrival e-visa, On-arrival e-visa, and Pre-arrival visa from the Saudi mission). We even had the honor of personally meeting the Minister of Tourism with a group of visitors so they could share their experience in the country. Taking all possible actions to ensure success, we also evaluated travel planning tools, arrival and immigration processes, on-the-ground experiences, and departure procedures.
Examining Tourism offerings to improve the visitor experience:
At the same time, we focused on identifying relevant touchpoints to dissect the visitor experience as well as recommend strategies, products and services, and other interventions that would support and uplift various stakeholders in the Tourism sector. Our goal was to establish brand tracking practices and develop a sound performance management tool to monitor each visitor segment over time across all tourist offerings.
To set baselines and define criteria against which performance could be measured, we conducted desk research, in-depth interviews, and stakeholder workshops. We carried out online “Voice of Tourist” evaluations with 18,500 visitors to Saudi Arabia to gauge NPS (Net Promoter Score), Customer Satisfaction, and Brand Impact. We also facilitated nearly 400 mystery visits to tourist sites and other places of interest to assess compliance and delivery according to visitors’ needs and expectations, which helped us frame strengths, weaknesses, and pain points.
Through our research, we uncovered key drivers and barriers across three main themes that influenced opinions on traveling to Saudi Arabia and developed metrics to indicate how visitors’ perceptions changed in light of their experience in the country. These learnings directly informed the content development strategy for the ‘VisitSaudi’ website and application.
To streamline pre-arrival procedures, we recommended redesigning the visa application and e-visa delivery format (including offering WhatsApp communication), and we tailored communication messaging based on visitors’ nationalities and profiles (singles, friends, families, and couples), as well as their port of arrival. The weaknesses we identified in immigration processes and the visa on arrival experience also influenced staff capacity building.
We also initiated a “Voice of Tourist” (VoT) score powered by real data to continually monitor KPIs across defined segments and identify key opportunities to enhance international tourist offerings in terms of processes, infrastructure, and stakeholder engagement.
While a project of this scope has many variables to account for, the AWE team was able to navigate the complexity and focus on delivering both short and long-term recommendations that enabled the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Tourism to open the country for international tourism at an unprecedented rate.
Our careful inspection of the visitor experience as a whole improved Saudi Arabia’s brand image and eliminated barriers to visiting by simplifying travel procedures. Ultimately our efforts resulted in growing the Saudi Arabian tourism landscape and increasing international visitors to the country while unifying various stakeholders to ensure cohesive implementation.
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