KSA – a new focus for Virtuoso

Saudi Arabia has become dear to the heart of Virtuoso CEO Matthew Upchurch. Indeed, over the past couple of years, thanks to the Kingdom’s growing relationship with his organisation’s luxury travel advisors, he has very much put it on the global tourism map. SAFE editor-in-chief Richard Barnes met with Matthew and asked him to outline his vision for Saudi Arabia.

I’m not sure that what is happening in Saudi Arabia has ever happened before, with the magnitude of the projects, and what they’re doing. As somebody who’s grown up in tourism, it’s really amazing to see what is being done with the ability to define an entire region, an entire country and the involvement of the giga projects. I think one of the things that are really important is that Saudi Arabia has a very large population, whereas in a lot of other GCC countries, the majority of the population are expats… and it’s a very young country. So, it’s really fabulous to see how travel and tourism is being used as a fundamental part of transforming an economy. And because of their resources, the ability to, quite frankly, lead and test the very things that we need to make tourism more sustainable and more powerful in the future.

Before the WTTC meeting in Riyadh last year, you spent quite a bit of time going around Saudi Arabia, visiting. What were your impressions then and what really impressed you the most about Saudi Arabia?

First of all, I went to Alula and I think everybody now wants to go to Alula. It’s quite a remarkable place. It’s just how impressive the projects were. But more importantly, it’s the interactions I had with the young Saudis. The conversations I had with the young Saudis was very gratifying, with their warmth, and their excitement to see us there… they’re wanting to share. In Jeddah, our guide was the first female guide in all of Saudi Arabia. And having her show us the old city in Jeddah was amazing, with that interaction. Travel has always been about the people and that human connection. There’s another thing I came away with. I had a meeting with a young woman who’s actually from Jeddah who said, ‘The West, I’m not sure really gets what’s going on here’. And I said, ‘Well, what do you mean by that?’

‘A lot of you think that my country is modernising.’ She said, ‘If I showed you a picture of my grandmother in 1975 in Jeddah, you would think she would have been the Arabian Grace Kelly. And then what happened? The Islamic Revolution. Our royal family basically did a deal with the clerics. Social life was handed over. You know, we’re the custodians of Mecca, and it was done to preserve the integrity of the kingdom. Now, what’s happening is as we are coming back and we’re doing these projects, what I say is this is not the modernisation of my country, it’s the restoration of my country.’ And when I shared this with the minister. I actually said, ‘Is this something that when I tell the story around the world, what would you think about it?’ And he said, “Well, the Crown Prince talks about all the time.’ Whenever I share that story, it was one of the most impactful stories for me because it changes your perspective. This is the restoration of a path, and that’s why I think there’s so much excitement.

Saudi Arabia was present this year at Virtuoso Travel Week, and of course, that made an impact on the members of Virtuoso. What kind of feedback have you had since then from some of the members or those that maybe have been there? How is it evolving when it comes to the Virtuoso members?

Well, we have a lot of members. Our advisors and our network are very similar to the client base. You have early adopters, people that like to be there. I think one of the things that I hear a lot is that there’s a certain type of adviser who probably, by the way, has clients that are similar, where they like to be early adopters. They also like to be part of the development of it… they want to be part of the history of something that’s developing. I think it’s amazing the number of people that have been there and been back, and how easy it is to get around… all those things… but we’re excited about what’s coming. There are different levels of understanding and focus, but it comes down to the consistency of the messaging and the evolution of the projects. I was just in London meeting with some of our London-based members and one of our members who was just there in the last two months said the number of people that want to get to Alula and get to Saudi Arabia was incredible. Incredible. So it’s happening!

Well, of course, now the properties are starting to come to fruition – to open. Red Sea project is going to see the Six Senses opening up very soon. We’ve been talking about it a lot, but now it’s actually happening and that’s going to change things quite a bit.

Absolutely. In fact, John Pagano, the CEO of the Red Sea development was the host for our gala dinner. And when he showed the videos and the pictures of what’s going on there, it’s quite breath-taking. And again, emphasising that a lot of investment is being made in testing all kinds of new sustainable practices, which quite frankly, Saudi Arabia can afford to do. And hopefully it will be something that will extend the opportunity to the rest of the world. But it is exciting when brands like Six Senses and all the other major wonderful partners that we have are opening up. I’m not sure there’s a brand left that doesn’t have some sort of plans there, so it’s quite exciting.

It is. And talking about sustainability, in comparison with other industries in the world, what the hotel industry is doing in Saudi Arabia, what the new resorts are doing, is really stepping just one extra step ahead, isn’t it?

Yes, and what’s really important is to take into account that sustainability. That’s the ability of Saudi Arabia, a carbon-based economy for the most, to be able to be on the leading edge and invest very seriously with a much longer view of return. To be able to then develop the technologies and enhance and fund the technologies that will help the rest of the world is an important part of this journey. But also, sometimes we forget that one of the fundamental reasons Saudi Arabia is doing this is diversification of their economy. And already, the percentage that tourism represents is growing at a very fast pace. But this is where sustainability is also about the preservation of natural cultural heritage and local employment… the local economy.

Very important. The industry is developing rapidly, means they need a lot of training. So this is the biggest issue I guess, at the moment.

Yes, there’s a number of projects they’re working on in that area as well. It’s another example that when you have a destination of that magnitude that needs to train that many people, it’s going to it’s going to also make a make a way for others to be able to tackle this issue around travel and tourism employment.

You’re on your way to Riyadh for World Tourism Day. It’s interesting to see how, again, WTTC and UNWTO – because of course, you’re on the board of WTTC – are working more and more together. What will your involvement be in this conference in Riyadh?

Well, it’s World Tourism Day. We have a gala dinner and then I’m on a panel the next day on seamless travel and some of the barriers and what we need to do around that of that. But to your point, it is very gratifying to see the private sector represented by WTTC and the public sector represent UNWTO working together, because when the private and public sector work effectively together, then that’s when the real results happen. And it’s good to see that.

And we saw it for the first time really applied in that way at the last Riyadh conference of WTTC. It’s we didn’t see it so much before then at all.

That’s correct. And obviously I think what also happened is that the disaster that was Covid was able to at least make the impact of travel better known to those that were maybe a little bit more reticent to fully understand the effects of what happens when you shut down global travel.

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