Saudi tourism is building a shared distribution layer
An API integration between Almosafer Activities and the Saudi Partner Tourism Exchange Portal will route Saudi experience inventory across B2B and consumer channels.
The integration connects inventory to multiple channels
Almosafer Activities has announced an API connection to the Saudi Tourism Authority’s Saudi Partner Tourism Exchange Portal. Through the integration, Almosafer Activities will supply its existing portfolio of Saudi tours, activities and experiences to the portal for distribution through its global partner network.
The network includes B2B and consumer channels, with Visit Saudi named as one consumer-facing platform. The model could give participating experience providers one route into several distribution channels. Its impact will depend on adoption and execution; the announcement does not provide product volumes, partner numbers, transaction data or a launch timetable.
“Saudi Arabia’s tourism ecosystem thrives when our partners work together to remove friction for the traveller. Integrating Almosafer Activities’ marketplace into the Saudi Partner Tourism Exchange Portal provides tourism businesses with a wide range of activity content across Saudi Arabia, while Saudi SMEs in the experiences sector gain a direct channel to reach the world.” — Abdulaziz Al Sultan, Digital Partnerships Executive Director at the Saudi Tourism Authority
Teams from the Saudi Tourism Authority and Almosafer Activities mark the new Tourism Exchange Portal integration.
How the portal’s distribution model works
The Saudi Tourism Authority describes the Saudi Partner Tourism Exchange Portal as a B2B platform through which local and regional providers can sell event tickets, tours, accommodation and other experiences in real time across global distribution channels.
The new integration places Almosafer Activities’ catalogue inside that network. Portal partners will be able to distribute the activity inventory across their own B2B or consumer channels. This creates the potential to expand commercial reach through one technical connection, although the release does not describe the integration’s architecture or operating terms.
The distinction between capability and performance matters here. The API establishes a route to market. Evidence of its value will come later through supplier participation, active distribution partners, bookings and revenue generated through the exchange.
SMEs are a stated priority
Both organisations identify small and medium-sized experience providers as intended beneficiaries. Almosafer and the Saudi Tourism Authority say their wider collaboration includes joint work to onboard and support SMEs operating in the Kingdom’s experience sector.
Connecting this inventory to additional buyers could broaden an SME’s potential reach. The release does not yet establish how many SMEs will participate or whether the integration will improve their commercial results. Those outcomes will depend on which channels activate the inventory and whether that exposure converts into bookings.
The emphasis on SMEs is nevertheless relevant to Saudi tourism’s development. A distribution platform can only represent the breadth of the market if smaller tours, attractions and experience operators can participate alongside larger suppliers.
Almosafer Activities supplies the marketplace layer
Almosafer Activities launched in 2023 as a joint venture between Almosafer Travel & Tourism Co. and Klook. Almosafer describes it as the Kingdom’s first holistic B2B marketplace for tours, attractions and experiences, providing merchants with content and inventory management as well as access to distribution channels.
The integration extends that marketplace role into the Saudi Tourism Authority’s exchange. Almosafer Activities supplies experience inventory; the portal makes that inventory available to a wider partner network. This division of roles explains the strategic logic of the partnership more clearly than the announcement language alone.
“By connecting Almosafer Activities directly to the Tourism Exchange Portal, we are not only making it easier for travellers to book unique experiences across the Kingdom, but also opening up new distribution opportunities for the SMEs and merchants who power our tourism sector.”
— Saria Alderhali, General Manager of Almosafer Activities
The policy context extends beyond visitor targets
The announcement links the integration to Saudi Vision 2030 and the Kingdom’s target of 150 million annual visitors by 2030. The target provides policy context, but the release offers no basis for calculating this integration’s contribution to it.
Its nearer-term relevance lies in distribution capacity. Saudi Arabia has invested heavily in destinations, events and experiences. Those products also need systems that make them visible and bookable through the channels used by domestic and international travellers.
The useful measures will therefore be operational: how much inventory enters the exchange, how many partners distribute it, how many SMEs participate and how much booking activity follows. Until those figures emerge, this integration should be read as an expansion of Saudi tourism’s digital distribution capability rather than proof of its commercial impact.