Seven Days Across the Heart of Arabia | Talia Tourism’s Zhou Dongni Joins the Saudi Ministry of Tourism’s Tour of Saudi Arabia
On 21 November 2024, an invitation from Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Tourism brought a Chinese travel professional into the Heart of Arabia. Invited by the Saudi Ministry of Tourism, Zhou Dongni of Talia Tourism joined a seven-day tour across Saudi Arabia as the only invited Chinese travel professional, setting out with industry peers from several countries on an in-depth journey through the Kingdom’s signature destinations. Over seven days, desert camps, red-rock canyons, oasis towns and the night lights of mountain cities unfolded one after another — a high-level official invitation, and at the same time a field study of the future of China–Saudi tourism.
Background: A Year of Acceleration for China–Saudi Tourism
2024 was a milestone year for China–Saudi tourism cooperation. On 1 July, the China–Saudi ADS (Approved Destination Status) agreement came into force; from 17 to 26 October, the “Saudi Tourism Festival” was held at Beijing’s Temple of Heaven Park, and Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Tourism and Chairman of the Saudi Tourism Authority, Ahmed Al-Khateeb, visited China, where he met officials from China’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism and held in-depth exchanges with travel companies including Ctrip, Jin Jiang and Fliggy.
Air connectivity is also accelerating: between 2023 and 2024, seat capacity on China–Saudi routes grew by 52 percent to more than 243,000 seats; Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen all operate direct flights to Riyadh or Jeddah, and from 28 October Cathay Pacific added a direct Hong Kong–Riyadh service. On visas, e-visas can be issued in as little as three minutes, alongside transit and visa-on-arrival options. It was against this backdrop that the Ministry of Tourism launched this seven-day tour on 21 November, inviting travel industry partners from around the world — Zhou Dongni among them — to experience the “New Saudi” first-hand.
What the Invitation Means: A Vote of Confidence
According to the company’s public materials, Talia Tourism is registered in Riyadh and has spent more than a decade cultivating the Saudi tourism market, serving cultural tourism, business and community exchanges between China and Saudi Arabia. Zhou Dongni also serves as Executive Vice President of the Saudi Federation of Chinese Communities and Associations and Executive President of the China-Saudi Cultural and Art Association. China Daily previously quoted her observations on Chinese visitor preferences in a report on tourism development in AlUla.
At a moment when Saudi tourism is looking east, the invitation extended to a Chinese destination management company long rooted in Riyadh sends a clear signal: Saudi officials value the Chinese market, and value local professional partners who truly understand Chinese travellers.
Tour Highlights: Seven Days, from Desert Camp to Canyon Oasis
The seven-day journey began in Riyadh, the capital, and linked Hail, AlUla and Al-Ahsa in turn — four cities that together unfold four facets of Saudi tourism. In Riyadh, a young skyline frames traces of the old capital, where modern ambition meets deep heritage; after dark, the tour moved on to a desert camp, where Zhou Dongni attended an evening of cultural exchange in a traditional Bedouin tent, offering Chinese calligraphy and painting as gifts and sharing Arabic coffee with fellow delegates under the desert stars.
Heading north to Hail, the group switched to 4×4 vehicles for a ride across the rolling dunes, followed by late-night conversations beneath the lights of the mountain city. In AlUla, wind-carved sandstone rises like a gallery of natural sculptures, and the tour walked into the heart of the red-rock canyons to see, up close, what time and wind have written on the rock walls. The final stop, Al-Ahsa, brought a softer note: millions of date palms shade what is widely described as the world’s largest palm oasis, where the group enjoyed a local lunch to close out the seven days.
Industry Insight: The China Opportunity from the Front Line
The numbers tell the story: Saudi Arabia welcomed 116 million visits in 2024, including 212,000 Chinese visitors, up 52 percent year on year; Saudi officials have set a target of 5 million Chinese visitors by 2030. AlUla, for example, received 263,000 visitors in 2023, with the Asia-Pacific region accounting for roughly 3.1 percent, and aims to reach 1.1 million visitors by 2030.
In her earlier comments to China Daily, Zhou Dongni observed that Chinese travellers to AlUla span a wide age range and generally favour authentic Arabic cuisine, high-quality accommodation and cultural experiences that blend tradition with modernity. For Saudi destination management companies, this means guide training in Chinese, payment convenience and itinerary design capability will be key to serving the Chinese market; for Chinese partners, Saudi Arabia is in a window of product opportunity — World Heritage towns, desert resorts and the Red Sea coast are only just opening up.
Looking Ahead: Turning Seven Days of Insight into Itineraries for Chinese Travellers
In October 2024, China and Saudi Arabia signed the implementation plan for the 2025 China-Saudi Culture Year, further accelerating cultural and tourism exchange between the two countries. For Talia Tourism, the purpose of this tour is highly practical: to turn first-hand observations into mature itineraries and products for Chinese travellers — from in-depth tours of World Heritage towns to desert camp cultural experiences, business visits and MICE travel — while continuing to support Chinese travel industry partners with local services and helping more Chinese travellers discover Saudi Arabia.
If you would like to see, in the best season of the year, the 2,000-year-old rock-cut tombs of Hegra and the coral-stone lanes of historic Jeddah — or simply drink a cup of Arabic coffee beneath a desert sky full of stars — talk to Talia Tourism. Let our team, rooted in Saudi Arabia for over a decade, turn these seven days of insight into a journey of your own.