UiPath (NYSE: PATH), a leading enterprise automation and AI software company, today announced that the Ministry of Tourism of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is using AI-powered automation in its mission to establish the Kingdom as a thriving global destination and make tourism a leading industry of its dynamic and diverse economy. The Ministry is leveraging the UiPath Business Automation Platform to further its national tourism strategy, which rests on increasing the number of annual tourists to 150 million by 2030, support the national GDP by 10%, and create around 1.6 million job opportunities, while growing the contribution of the private sector and attracting foreign direct investment in order to unlock the potential of this thriving non-oil sector.
In 2023, Saudi Arabia welcomed more than 100 million tourists, including 27.4 million foreign visitors, topping the United Nations World Tourism Organization’s ranking for the growth of international tourist arrivals among large destinations[1]. With an ambitious goal to position Saudi Arabia as the most attractive global destination for investors and tourists, the Ministry of Tourism spearheads efforts to bolster the tourism sector’s capacity and welcome the growing influx of tourists. As such, it manages hospitality industry licenses, enforces standards for services in the sector, and drives the training and development of hospitality industry professionals.
An early adopter of automation, the Ministry first leveraged UiPath in 2018 to build internal capabilities during the transition to a new national procurement platform. After the success of the initial deployment, the Ministry accelerated adoption and is now focusing on automating external-facing processes. This allows the Ministry to create and operate a fast and friendly interface that allows for better collaboration with external third parties from across Saudi Arabia’s tourism ecosystem, such as hotels, popular destination sites, and cultural attractions.
Ms. Aljoharah Al-Mogbel, Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation and IT, said: “In our journey to position Saudi Arabia among the G20’s top 10 tourism destinations by 2030, we are leveraging the transformative power of Artificial Intelligence and hyper-automation technologies. These strategic enablers are crucial to our digital tourism strategy, aiming to elevate experiences for both investors and tourists by setting new standards in service and engagement. Our commitment to employing these technologies enables us to tailor unforgettable experiences and thrive the tourist experience through their effective application across various use cases in the tourism sector. This focus on innovation underscores our mission to make the Kingdom a global beacon of tourism excellence, ensuring Saudi Arabia’s prominence on the international tourism stage.”
AI-powered discovery for endless automation potential
In line with its data-driven decision-making, the Ministry is taking a strategic approach to identifying the best external-facing processes to automate using UiPath Process Mining and UiPath Task Mining. This provides the Ministry’s Automation Center of Excellence team comprehensive insights into the tasks best suited for automation while enabling it to maintain full governance and keep data secure and private.
“There are now 35 automations working across the Ministry, 24/7, which have filled to date over 1.1 million fields of information. Automation provides real-time accurate financial information to inform our decisions. It is a huge improvement, and one that allows us to ensure the highest possible standards to bring the best experiences to our tourists and power our ability to maintain world-class services in the sector, said Hind Alkathiri, Enterprise Solutions Director with the Ministry of Tourism.“Saudi Arabia is advancing fast toward achieving its vision to foster one of the world’s most attractive tourism sectors and achieve the highest sustainable impact for its growth. By creating jobs and prioritizing sustainability, the Kingdom is not only future-proofing its economy, but laying the foundation for exceptional visitor experiences,” said Rob Enslin, Chief Executive Officer at UiPath. “We are extremely proud to support the Kingdom’s Ministry of Tourism in its mission to build a world-class tourism industry and to become a frontrunner in the adoption of AI-powered automation within Saudi Arabia’s central administration.”
“We’ve been on a journey of collaboration and innovation with the Ministry of Tourism of Saudi Arabia since 2020, and we’re proud of the great results we achieved together. Partnering with an organization that puts sustainable digital transformation high on its agenda and is determined to lead with automation and AI adoption is incredibly satisfying,” said Hassan Yacoub – VP Intelligent Automation at Xocialive.
About UiPath
UiPath (NYSE: PATH) is on a mission to uplevel knowledge work so more people can work more creatively, collaboratively, and strategically. The AI-powered UiPath Business Automation Platform combined the leading robotic process automation (RPA) solution with a full suite of capabilities to understand, automate, and operate end-to-end processes, offering unprecedented time-to-value. For organizations that need to evolve to survive and thrive through increasingly challenging times, UiPath is The Foundation of Innovation™.
[1] https://mt.gov.sa/about/media-center/news/170/Saudi-Arabia-Ranked-1st-in-the-Growth-of-International-Tourists-Arrivals-in-2023-Compared-to-2019-Among-Large-Tourism-Destinations
