- 4 days ago
New infrastructure can help turn the country’s varied destinations into connected experiences for visitors.
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00:00Eventually, knowing your persona, AI will make it so personalized, you wouldn't know the difference that you're talking to a...
00:13Welcome to another episode of Culture End by Inc. Arabia.
00:18Travel is changing, and nowhere is that change more visible than our region.
00:24The GCC is no longer just a source market for global tourism.
00:29Saudi Arabia is opening up new destinations.
00:32The UAE continues to improve and enhance travel.
00:36New flight routes are taking us to more places in the world, and technology and AI are changing how we
00:43discover, plan, and book our trips.
00:46At the same time, travelers are changing.
00:50They want new experiences, convenience, personalization, and sometimes recommendations to places they never thought about.
00:58My guest today is Sid Sudhakar, a travel and marketing leader with a front row seat to many of these
01:05changes.
01:06I want to talk to him about where we're traveling, who's coming to our region, the trends shaping the industry,
01:14the impact of AI and social media, and ultimately, what we're looking for down the road in 2030.
01:21Sid, welcome.
01:23Let's talk travel.
01:25Thank you, Anas.
01:26Thank you for having me, Anas.
01:27My pleasure.
01:28So let's start with the traveler.
01:31Who is the GCC traveler today?
01:35How different are they from the past five or ten years ago?
01:38And what is the most that has changed in these travelers compared to previous years?
01:46Yeah.
01:47Thank you for the question.
01:48The GCC traveler is a very evolved traveler, very digitally savvy, is open to trying new technologies.
01:57One of the first adopters of technology in the world.
02:03And from five years or ten years ago, the GCC traveler is a more well-informed traveler.
02:10He is just not using travel platforms or when having the intention to travel.
02:18He is researching.
02:20He is looking at, hey, I'm going to this destination A.
02:25What else can I look at experiencing?
02:29What is the cultural nuances there?
02:33What are the foods that he can eat?
02:35What are the historical websites, historical places that he will be visiting?
02:41So, yeah, evolved traveler who is value conscious, not price conscious.
02:51Value conscious in terms of having a wonderful experience on his travel
02:57and experiencing new cultures, new heritages and new food and new experiences.
03:07You know, Trip has been in the region for a while now
03:10and I understand you're one of the early employees with trip.com.
03:15The data that you capture, you know, from trends, from people, destination and so forth.
03:24How is this helping you or helping the traveler to think about their next destination?
03:34So, are you setting trends in other words?
03:38Are we setting trends?
03:39So, we have to be part of trends to evolve as a travel company.
03:44So, we continue enhancing our technology, our product offerings.
03:48At the end of it, we put the customer at the center of our universe and then we ask one
03:55question.
03:55How do we make their lives easier?
03:58And that is what we end up doing in all our product offerings.
04:03When you say trends that we are seeing recently is the GCC traveler or the Middle Eastern traveler
04:12is just not doing the usual VFR travel.
04:16He's traveling three, four times a year and we are seeing that from our trends.
04:21On his bookings, compared to last year with the current situation,
04:2744% of our bookings are short haul to mid haul travel.
04:31So, the GCC traveler is looking at convenient nearby locations where he could create...
04:40A four, eight hours travel or is it...
04:42It's two to five to six hours travel, two to six hour travel.
04:47And above six hours would be long haul travel.
04:49So, we have seen an increase from 2025, short haul travel,
04:55because of obvious reasons we don't want to get into.
04:59But the traveling hasn't stopped.
05:01The traveling has continued.
05:03And then, when we see our data from the summer months
05:05and the boom of long haul travel came back.
05:10But short haul travel and mid haul travel continue to stay strong.
05:16So, we are seeing a new trend where they are doing two or three trips a year.
05:22One long haul, one mid haul, one short haul.
05:25Okay.
05:25Yeah.
05:26And we are also seeing inter-regional travel between, say, UAE, Saudi, Saudi, UAE,
05:35UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, etc.
05:37And, say, Egypt, for example.
05:39So, that is something that will continue to grow, which is intra-regional travel.
05:46We have been hearing about the unified GCC visa.
05:50Yeah.
05:50I think that will add to the opportunity of more intra-regional travel and seamless intra-regional travel.
05:59So, that is a trend that we are seeing.
06:01Do you call, like, the travel between UAE and Saudi, is it destination based or function based?
06:07In other words, people are traveling for business or are they actually traveling for a weekend?
06:12So, the numbers I gave were just not for business.
06:16No.
06:16So, when we look at a travel demographic, when we look at the data, we break it down into three
06:23or four buckets.
06:24So, we would break it down into VFR travel.
06:26VFR is visit friends and family.
06:28Egyptians living in Saudi, going back home.
06:31Indians living in UAE, Saudi, going back home to visit their family and friends.
06:36Then, second is the business travel.
06:39You can see from the data, it's a two-day trip.
06:43During the week, probably.
06:44During the week, this.
06:46And then, the third number that I had previously mentioned, which is short-haul travel and mid-haul travel.
06:52Mid-haul travel is about 44%.
06:55This is where you see multi-packs bookings.
06:58Family.
06:58Family bookings.
07:00And that is the leisure part of it.
07:02There is a trend where sometimes business plus leisure, the trending word is pleasure.
07:09Yes.
07:10So, that also is a trend that we are seeing.
07:15From our data, we are able to bifurcate VFR versus business versus this.
07:20And we are seeing strong growth in the leisure side of things for intra-region travel.
07:25You mentioned earlier, the GCC travelers or the Middle Eastern travelers are looking for value,
07:32not necessarily prices, right?
07:36Can you expand on this?
07:37So, when I say value, value in terms of the money that he or she are paying for their trip,
07:45are they getting to experience something new?
07:50Are they getting to experience a new culture, a new food, a new nature walk or a new trail
07:58or a new hotel in the middle of nowhere?
08:01That is value-based travel.
08:03And, of course, you cannot put a price on experiences like those.
08:08So, that is why I said value-based travel and just not price-based travel.
08:14Of course, price is important.
08:15Everyone, if they are able to save their 400, 500 rials or dirhams, they will do that.
08:24But increasingly on their family or business or VFR travels,
08:30they are adding a couple of experience elements to their bookings, which is an interesting trend.
08:36So, in a way, it's not just the destination, it's the experience that is added to this conversation.
08:43Shifting gears to Saudi Arabia, you know, it's undergoing one of the world's most ambitious tourism transformations
08:49with Lula and so many projects that are happening in Saudi.
08:53How is this impacting the business in two ways, inbound and outbound?
09:01Yeah.
09:03So, Saudi Arabia is a very important growth market for us, for both inbound and outbound.
09:09Because of the tremendous efforts of the government to improve the infrastructure, the tourism infrastructure,
09:17the experience infrastructure, multiple examples that you have given,
09:22we are just not about concentrating on outbound Saudi Arabia.
09:27This is also about inbound Saudi Arabia.
09:29And that's why we work very closely with the Saudi Tourism Authority and the Ministry of Tourism
09:35to bring customers from all across the world into Saudi Arabia as a leisure destination,
09:42just not as a business destination.
09:45So, that is one of our key projects that is currently ongoing.
09:49And the sky is the limit for Saudi Arabia.
09:51I mean, it is just at the start of the upward trend.
09:56The big one, I think, is it 2032 or 34?
10:00The FIFA World Cup will be the crescendo.
10:05Yeah, yeah.
10:06And we are very much interested, invested in this growth story.
10:12And we are looking to just not take people to international destinations from Saudi Arabia,
10:18but we are also looking at bringing international tourists into Saudi Arabia.
10:22Nice, nice.
10:23China and GCC are becoming far more connected, connected economically, but also through travel.
10:31What are some of the key highlights that gets people from the GCC and MENA region to travel to China?
10:40And the other question would be, what don't we know about the Chinese culture traveler
10:50that we can basically embrace him or her in the region?
10:54So, yes, it is just not from a tourism, just from a tourism perspective.
11:02I think business wise, etc.
11:04There's a lot of, even between the governments, there's a lot of camaraderie,
11:09a lot of exchanges happening, cooperation happening.
11:14So, for the GCC traveler, I've been to China multiple times.
11:21It absolutely blows my mind.
11:23Yes.
11:24Every time I go there, something I've never seen anywhere in the world, you get to experience.
11:31China is a humongous country, and there is a lot to see.
11:36Yes.
11:37Near the Mongolian border, you get all the snow in the world.
11:42You have tropical climate at the southeast side.
11:49You have a different weather.
11:50So, on the west versus east, etc.
11:58Just, China has been, they have done such a great job in preserving the culture.
12:06So that you will get to experience culture, you'll get to experience amazing infrastructure.
12:16I mean, connectivity infrastructure is, all you need is a phone.
12:23And one of the payment apps, and you can go length and breadth of that country, no problem.
12:32And the third thing is the food.
12:36Very diverse.
12:38Very diverse.
12:39Every region of China has a different cuisine.
12:45The Sichuan pepper is very famous.
12:48Of course.
12:49And the dishes with Sichuan pepper in them are some of my favorites.
12:54So, Shanghai has a different cuisine.
12:57Beijing has a different cuisine.
12:59So, as you go, the same thing, you will have five or six different tastes across this.
13:06That is from a GCC.
13:08And just well-preserved historical monuments, rich culture.
13:15And they are very welcoming people.
13:17They are so friendly, welcoming people.
13:21I would take the opportunity through this podcast to, if you are not thinking of China, you should.
13:29Because that country and the sights and sounds will absolutely improve.
13:36So, I'll pause, you know, with a follow-up question before I ask about the inbound travel from China.
13:43If you were to make a trip to China, I mean, I read about it like you can't do it
13:47in one trip.
13:48Yeah.
13:48Unless you want to, you know, relocate for a period of time.
13:52What's a reasonable time in the year to travel and for how many days, weeks?
14:03If you are planning China and if you are going to touch five or six cities, I think a 14,
14:0915 day trip is a bare minimum.
14:12The best time to travel is April, March, April, May, which is the spring time.
14:21July, August gets a little bit humid.
14:25Hot and humid, yes.
14:26Hot and humid.
14:27And then past July again, the fall is very pleasant.
14:32And then you get to experience a different side of China when it is the December, January cold.
14:38That is also very beautiful.
14:40So, you get all the full seasons during the year.
14:45It depends on the customer's preference.
14:48For 2027, you know, I think with the aid coming in March timeframe.
14:53So, it would be a very perfect time to travel.
14:56So, back to my question about, you know, what do we need to do to get more Chinese coming to
15:04our region?
15:06So, China is already a huge source market for the Middle East.
15:10Okay.
15:11I think over the last five, six years, maybe even close to eight years, all the governments in the region
15:18have invested heavily in creating the know-how about the region in China.
15:28We are one of the biggest travel players through various brands in the Chinese market.
15:37We bring a lot of people over to the Middle East.
15:40And we work with the tourism boards to target different set of travel audience within the Chinese market.
15:50It could be groups, it could be elders, it could be single travelers, it could be family, it could be
15:55business.
15:57So, everyone has a different persona.
15:59Sure.
16:00And having been in the market for so long, we understand those personas.
16:05And we work with the tourism boards to ensure what is the kind of persona they're looking to bring to
16:13the region.
16:13And then we accordingly use our tech and product to target them effectively and bring them, showcase the region to
16:23Chinese travelers.
16:24So, I wouldn't put the Chinese traveler into one bucket or one hand fits every glove.
16:32They are very varied, very different.
16:35But, yeah, I think the tourism boards are already doing a great job at it.
16:41And we are seeing the numbers coming back.
16:45And I think post-December once all the connectivity issues are done, I think we should see the thrones of
16:52Chinese tourists coming back to the Middle East.
16:55Nice.
16:55You mentioned product and tech.
16:57And no conversation today happens without talking about the future and, yes, AI.
17:04Yes.
17:05Do you think it's an, you know, AI will help us in our future travel plans?
17:13Or is it an overhype that people talk about we need to go back to basics?
17:21No.
17:22I think AI is here to stay.
17:28Especially what travel companies are doing now is in a customer's journey, which is awareness, concentration, intent, purchase.
17:40The awareness and concentration part is being done very well.
17:45Okay.
17:45The intent and the purchase part is where travel companies need to use better AI to personalize each interaction for
17:58the customer using AI.
18:00At the end of it, AI should make things simpler for the customer, not complicated.
18:07Yeah.
18:07So, let's just talk about what Trip.com is doing.
18:14We have built our own LLM platform called Trip Genie.
18:21Okay.
18:21It has connectivity to all the other large language models.
18:25And you are able to seek the inspiration stage of your journey where you are just researching, etc.
18:31It will give you an entire, as you said earlier from our conversation about China, a plan of 14-day
18:40trip for my family to China.
18:42And Trip Genie will give its recommendation based on sales and consumer behavior data that we have.
18:52And it will make recommendations to you.
18:56And the second part of our AI enabled platform is called Trip Planner, where those recommendations can be, again, researched
19:07through Trip Planner.
19:08And by hitting a plus sign on Trip Planner, you can put that in your cart and you can go
19:16ahead and transact.
19:17The next evolution of travel is what agentic commerce is going to be.
19:26Agentic commerce is, for example, knowing the customer persona, creating personas for yourself.
19:37And we are able to track customer personas.
19:42So, knowing your persona, I have booked from my history a couple of Coldplay tickets.
19:50I am going on business to Singapore.
19:55And I eat halal.
19:57And I eat halal, etc.
20:00And I am in Singapore.
20:02I am enjoying my halal food.
20:04I have booked my flight, hotel, booked my car rental, booked my attraction.
20:08I have been to Santos, etc.
20:09And then I hear that a last minute Coldplay concert is happening.
20:15And I will say, hey, can you book a Coldplay ticket for me?
20:23This is the next phase of agentic commerce.
20:26Hey, I want, say I am three weeks ahead from my trip to Singapore.
20:33And I can tell my AI agent or AI travel agent, hey, can you try and book a Coldplay ticket
20:45for me?
20:45My maximum budget is $1,000.
20:51And it will go.
20:53It will stand in queue on the website for you as your persona.
20:57It will go through it.
21:00And when you are able to get an availability of a ticket, it will send you a notification.
21:08And it will say, hey, Coldplay ticket available.
21:11You said $1,000.
21:12I have got it for $950.
21:13Can I go ahead?
21:14Face ID?
21:15Yes.
21:17It will make the booking fee.
21:18Wow.
21:19So that is where we are heading towards.
21:23We are at a very early adoption stage of that process.
21:28As a matter of fact, we did our first agentic commerce with Mastercard in the region at the Arabian Travel
21:35Market last month.
21:36So that made some news around the circles.
21:43But yeah, that is where we are heading towards.
21:46Nice, nice.
21:47And the future of where I see AI, it will not be visible to the customer.
21:57It's on the back.
21:58It will be working as you, with your permission, and with checks in place.
22:04It will be working in the background.
22:07And in the future, it is just the intent, not where I want to go.
22:13Hey, book a trip for my family.
22:16My budget is this much.
22:18Give me some recommendations.
22:20And I want halal food.
22:22I want hiking trip, this, this.
22:27It will take care of the rest.
22:28So unless you enjoy the mundane tasks of, you know, refreshing your browser to see if it's a ticket that's
22:34available or not.
22:36Wow.
22:36Yeah.
22:37So that is where we are heading towards.
22:39Are we there yet?
22:40No.
22:41Is agentic commerce going to fly in the next 10 years?
22:46Yes.
22:46I believe so.
22:49We, you go back 10, 12 years, we used to have apprehension on tapping our phone at a kiosk.
22:56Absolutely.
22:57Yeah.
22:57We used to carry cash.
22:59Now, and they're like, oh, someone might steal money from my account if I tap.
23:04That used to be the apprehension, but now the world taps.
23:07Yeah.
23:07The world scans a QR code and pays.
23:09Yeah.
23:10So this is the next part of the evolution.
23:13It is coming.
23:15Yeah.
23:16We were the first ones in the region to do it as a test transaction.
23:22We plan to work with partners like MasterCard and evolve it further to multiple products.
23:29Nice.
23:30But yeah, that is where it is heading towards.
23:34And at the end of it, if it makes customers life easier, more convenient, saves 30 minutes so
23:43that I can use the extra 30 minutes to play with my kid.
23:46Yeah, we'll do it.
23:46So that is where AI comes into play.
23:49And then one last point on AI is the customer service side of things.
23:56Yeah.
23:56Even though Trip.com prides itself in having one of the biggest human customer service teams
24:03in the world, more than 9,000, 10,000 plus customer service agents in multiple call centers
24:10around the world.
24:12But eventually, knowing your persona, AI will make it so personalized.
24:19You wouldn't know the difference that you're talking to a human or an AI agent.
24:25That's where we are heading.
24:26But a lot of work has been done on the customer service side.
24:30But agentic, a lot of work still needs to be done.
24:33You know, on the first part, I think it's not going to take 10 years.
24:36Yeah.
24:36I think the pace that, you know, AI is moving so quickly month over month, I think, I hope,
24:44you know, my expectation is it's going to be even faster to see that.
24:492030 could be the right time.
24:51Yeah.
24:52Yeah, absolutely.
24:53And then the other thing about the customer service, because that's important.
24:57Yeah.
24:57And, you know, and maybe it's a generational thing.
24:59Maybe whatever it is, I still call 600-5555, you know, Emirates, because I want to speak
25:07to a person to make sure that I have the seat next to me vacant or I want a window
25:13seat or
25:14that.
25:15But to your point, I think if that agent knows you well enough, it will spare you doing
25:23that call.
25:23Yeah.
25:23Today, it's more of a confirmation that I make the call to make sure it's happening.
25:29But I think the day will come where the agent will handle this for you.
25:34Yeah.
25:35You brought up the awareness and consideration.
25:39How much is social media playing a role in that awareness and consideration?
25:47You know, we're all on TikTok, on Instagram, watching reels.
25:51Oh, this is a nice place.
25:53I want to think about it.
25:56Is social media replacing traditional media?
26:01Despite the fact that, in my opinion, social media sometimes lacks the credibility, right?
26:08Anyone can come in and say this is what it is.
26:10Traditional media still has the credibility, right?
26:13So, how much, you know, leeway do you have between a pure influencer, creator content
26:20and more established traditional media?
26:24So, in terms of social media, I still think social media is used by travelers and potential
26:35travelers who are in the planning phase or the inspiration stage of their booking process.
26:43They're following their favorite influencer or favorite KOL.
26:48Oh, he's gone to this hotel.
26:50Let's research it.
26:52Oh, he's gone to this destination.
26:53Let's research it.
26:55Well, social media complete.
26:57Social media is for many people now.
27:03Yeah.
27:04They're a channel of news content.
27:07A hundred percent.
27:08Channel for inspirational content.
27:10Channel for planning part of their phase already.
27:15Will it ever become a complete booking engine?
27:19I don't know.
27:21Because that requires a lot of technical know-how, tech bandwidth, industry awareness, industry business acumen.
27:32So, I think social media will continue to grow and be that channel where the first point of inspiration for
27:43a traveler is going to be.
27:45At least the awareness part.
27:46Awareness part.
27:47Awareness part.
27:48What we have done on Trip, if you open the trip.com app, we have created our user generated content
27:59session called Trip Moments.
28:00It's right on the homepage.
28:03And all, if people are looking, if they search for a flight to say Thailand, then it will store that
28:14data.
28:14And then it will give you trip moments of all Thailand, of genuine customers.
28:19User generated content.
28:20Content of Thailand.
28:21Okay.
28:21Of different hotels.
28:23Nice.
28:23And it will give you recommendations of Trip Best.
28:25Trip Best is our top selling hotels on Trip.com where customers are booked more than other hotels, etc.
28:34So, it will personalize the feed for you on Trip.com.
28:38And that is where, that is the power of social media and that's the power of what we have done.
28:44So, with Trip using user generated content.
28:49So, you are able to get that inspiration and research phase of your planning at one place.
28:58And social media is very important.
29:00If you had to identify the next major trend, travel trend.
29:05You know, we see these spikes and valleys in a way.
29:11One day it's about wellness.
29:13The other day it's entertainment and it becomes maybe adventure and so forth.
29:18Do you see an upcoming trend where, you know, travelers are pursuing?
29:24What I am seeing or what will happen in the next few years is, as I touched upon earlier, experience
29:33-led travel.
29:35I am going to watch my favorite football team in one of the European cities.
29:42And I will do the touristy hub around the experience of my football match.
29:48Or I am going to a musical concert.
29:50I am seeing Coldplay or Ed Sheeran play somewhere in the world.
29:54And I have gotten a ticket.
29:56I am booking my flight hotel.
29:58But then I am going to do the food tour.
30:00I am going to do the attraction tour, etc.
30:02This is, I think, the younger generation who are booking their entire trip on an app.
30:09Researching, etc.
30:11Not talking to humans.
30:12This is where we are heading towards.
30:15So, experience-led travel is going to be the key moving forward.
30:20It is no longer about going to multiple websites, booking a flight separate, hotel separate, car rental separate.
30:29And that is where OTAs like Trip.com have an advantage.
30:34The tech that we provide, we are providing that one-stop travel platform in one place.
30:44And that is where, I think, at the central core of an experience, travel could be planned and executed in
30:55the future.
30:56So, that is what I feel.
30:57And that is why, if you see the GCC, Saudi Arabia.
31:01Yeah.
31:01UAE is already doing it.
31:03Qatar has already done it.
31:04Yeah.
31:04Saudi Arabia is building amazing travel infrastructure around experiences.
31:11Yes.
31:11Around culture.
31:12Around heritage.
31:13Around food.
31:14Yes.
31:14So, that is where, even religious travel, etc.
31:20So, that is where we are heading towards.
31:24And that is where I think travel companies like us need to work hard to engage consumers, to give them
31:33a little bit extra, more in their travel journeys.
31:37Amazing.
31:38Sid, very insightful conversation.
31:41I really enjoyed it.
31:42I will end it with one last question.
31:45Your favorite place to travel to, and where did you come from last trip?
31:51I have a few places, but I think a surreal experience that not a lot of people know about is
32:00my favorite place.
32:03I am from India, of course, but even I have not seen maybe 20% of my own country.
32:09I have seen many other countries.
32:11But my favorite place, favorite holiday I ever did was a backpacking trip across India.
32:16Oh, nice.
32:17I did a 20-day trip from the south of India all the way to the north of India.
32:22And then we went through Darjeeling up to Sikkim and a city called Gangtok.
32:31And whichever window you open, you have the Himalayas in front of you, amazing trip.
32:35Wow.
32:36And amazing food, amazing warmth, amazing culture.
32:40So Gangtok in Sikkim was, I think, one of my favorite trips ever.
32:45Maybe I was young, I could do the big hikes, etc.
32:50But yeah, amazing experience.
32:53My last trip was just, I'm still jet lagged, but my last trip was just with my wife and my
33:02kid back to Dublin to see the family.
33:04So yeah, Ireland, Dublin was just beautiful, great weather and loved it.
33:12Amazing.
33:12Thank you, Sid, for your time.
33:14Looking forward to doing more together.
33:16Thank you, Anas.