The growing pace of tourism in the Kingdom has propelled a young Saudi to leave his job and establish a tourism company.
Metib Abdullah Al-Mahmmoud, tour guide and trip organizer, said that he started his business in 2006 after obtaining a license. Four years ago, he started organizing trips with the cooperation of a number of other organizers, to the Empty Quarter on Wednesdays and Thursdays for foreigners residing in the Kingdom, Europeans and Americans in particular, walking a distance of 50 km into the desert.
He explained that he left his job to work in this field because of a large base of customers, mostly foreigners residing in the Kingdom and visitors, adding that the work turned out to be a profitable business.
Stressing that the Kingdom has tourism potentials because of its environmental diversity he said, “Some of the destinations on our schedule include the heritage villages in Ashqair, Shaqraa and Qasim, in addition to Madain Saleh, Al-Fursan Islands and Abha.”
He added that trips are organized to Riyadh city on weekdays.
He said that his company’s website helped him in organizing such trips in a profitable way. “I was able to display the trips schedule and programs and receive bookings as well online.”
There is a big demand to visit archaeological sites and heritage places, despite a lack of information available in different languages on the Internet and social networking sites. “We receive positive feedback from the tourists about their pleasant experience, which offers us much encouragement,” he added.
Saudi leaves job to become Empty Quarter tour organizer
