Rotana, the Middle East's largest hospitality management company, has established its presence in Saudi Arabia with the recent agreement signed between Rotana and SHUAA Capital Saudi Arabia for 17 properties along with the soon-to-open Al-Marwa Rayhaan in Makkah in alliance with Jiwar Real Estate Management & Marketing Company. The Kingdom has increased focus on developing its tourism industry based on the remarkable economic growth achieved in recent years. The Kingdom has the appropriate cultural, educational, and social foundations to attract both regional and international tourists. The outbound business from Saudi Arabia represents over 6 million travelers with 80 percent of them traveling to the Middle East. The Middle East is the most important region for Saudi outbound tourism since Saudis are normally motivated to travel to destinations in which they are comfortable and where the language, culture and food are familiar to them. The top 6 destinations in the Middle East for the Saudi market are Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan, Dubai, Egypt and Lebanon. Rotana is present in all of them with existing properties and future projects. Michael Marshall, corporate vice president - Sales & Marketing for Rotana, said: “For Rotana, the GCC market represents over 40 percent of its clients and Saudi Arabia leads this segment. Based on all the above facts and the growth of the Saudi market, we are setting up our sales office in the Kingdom, which will assist with our expansion in Saudi Arabia and will take care of the inbound and outbound business. The objective is to increase the share of Saudi business/leisure outbound travelers to all Rotana properties. The office will be located in Jeddah and will serve a double purpose, one targeting the international travelers (corporate, leisure, business meetings etc.) whilst supporting the Makkah property.
