Saudi Arabia and Expedia showcased as twin stories of transformation at TOURISE
It was interesting to hear CNN’s Becky Anderson introduce her session with Saudi’s Vice Minister of Tourism, Princess Haifa Al Saud and Expedia Group CEO Ariane Gorin, as “a parallel story in leapfrogging”.
She commented, “Both are driving incredible change in the world of tourism, both compressing years of transformation into just a few years – Expedia through the rapid evolution of its technology and personalisation capabilities and Saudi Arabia through its rapid growth as a destination in an era when data shapes every stage of the travellers journey, from inspiration and booking and planning to the actual trip itself”.
Princess Haifa, pointing to the very composition of the stage as emblematic of the moment, added, “And women are at the forefront,”
She traced Saudi’s arc: known primarily for pilgrimage travel just a few years ago, now one of the world’s top 10 destinations in international arrivals. Madinah (Medina), she noted, has been voted the safest city in the world for solo female travellers for two years running. Leisure has surged – up 565% in four years – and inbound spend crossed SAR 250 billion last year. The punchline: “There’s still so much more to do and we’ll get there through partnerships.”
Expedia’s “third chapter”: predictive, proactive, personalised
Gorin described Expedia’s evolution in three acts:
- Bringing travel online;
- Shrinking the browser to the phone;
- AI as the operating system for discovery, planning and service.
Under the hood: billions of searches power more than 900 billion AI predictions a year. The objective isn’t more data, she said, it’s better decisions – price tracking for flights, context-aware trip timing advice, and review intelligence that surfaces what matters to each traveller.
“We think in threes,” she said. “Predictive, proactive, personalised. Predict the right moment, step in when plans wobble, and tailor the experience based on who you are and what you value.”
Crucially, Gorin dismissed the idea that generic chatbots will disintermediate the category: fulfilment in travel is complex, and trust – the sense that “someone’s got my back if things go wrong” – is the moat.
Data as destiny: Saudi’s decision engine
Princess Haifa pulled back the curtain on the Kingdom’s infrastructure: a national tourism data backbone that informs everything from investor portals and opportunity maps to segment-level experience design across 220 visitor touchpoints.
“AI is here,” she said. “But it’s the rigor of data that makes the investments smart – for government, for private partners, and ultimately for travellers.” The public investor portal lets partners zoom into any region, check flows, spend per night, occupancy and seasonality, then align product to real demand.
The human in the loop
Both leaders converged on the same creed: let machines kill the noise; let humans deliver the note.
Princess Haifa said, “No one comes home saying, ‘Thank God the tech didn’t fail me.’ What we remember – and what surveys confirm – are human-to-human moments.”
Gorin agreed: “We’re not selling T-shirts; we’re selling time. Technology prevents loss; people create meaning.”
