Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), one of the biggest in the world with more than $900 billion in assets under management, today announced it has set up its own duty-free and travel retail company, the first Saudi-owned business of its kind.
The aim is to tap what the kingdom expects will be a large airport retail business on the back of huge aviation infrastructure expansion in the Middle East country, but with other channels like inflight retail also in the mix.
Al Waha Duty-Free Company is wholly owned by PIF and according to a statement “will become a leader in travel retail and secure a greater share of passenger spending for the Saudi economy.”
Saudi Arabia is targeting luxury-level retailing with Al Waha which will operate high-end retail outlets in various locations in the country. The company will also sell distinctive, high-quality Saudi products as part of the merchandise mix.
Majed Al-Assaf, PIF’s head of consumer goods and retail for Middle East & North Africa (Mena) Investments, commented: “PIF intends to grow the Saudi travel retail industry and further support its ambitions for the tourism sector. Al Waha will offer a distinctive experience across travel retail touch points through diverse product offerings, a duty-free operation, and a superior digital customer journey.
“There is considerable potential for Saudi Arabia to gain a larger share of travel retail spending in the future through the continued increase in visitors coming to Saudi Arabia. Global events being hosted locally offer new opportunities to generate sustainable travel retail revenues.”
In December, world soccer organization FIFA confirmed the kingdom as the host of the 2034 men’s world cup tournament which is held every four years and is the most-watched sporting event on the planet. According to FIFA, match attendance at the last event in Qatar in 2022 topped 3.4 million.
Over one million visitors traveled to the country to see matches in person, which helped Qatar Airways-owned Qatar Duty Free lift its retail revenue—and the retailer continues to benefit from the luxury expansion it implemented at the time. The top visiting nationals to the 2022 event were from Saudi Arabia, India, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Mexico.
Saudi’s hard push for international tourists
In preparation for its tourism drive, Saudi Arabia has been revamping its image and has taken more of the limelight in world affairs; from politics to arts and sport, of late. Last year the movie Norah became the first film from the country to screen as part of the official program at the Cannes Film Festival and the kingdom is about to hold a summit between Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Jeddah.
This year, Saudi Arabia will also host the inaugural Olympics Esports Games run by the International Olympic Committee. The event will feature several different virtual sports and video games in a single location that will be a draw for younger generations. Also coming up are the Islamic Solidarity Games, the Women’s Tennis Association finals and the annual Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
These activities, as well as more routine events such as conferences and exhibitions, are on the rise in Saudi Arabia and Al Waha will be taking full advantage. As well as obvious locations like airports, the retailer will also run duty-free stores at land border crossings and seaports to capture as much travel retail shopping spending as possible.
Al Waha is also expected to enter channels such as inflight shopping, most likely via Riyadh Air, launched in 2023 as a full-service carrier and owned by PIF. The airline is hopeful it can connect to over 100 destinations around the world by 2030 and thus enable its hub airport, King Salman International Airport in Riyadh to become one of the world’s largest airports upon completion; with a capacity for 120 million passengers annually.
PIF—which has investments across multiple sectors from consumer goods and retail to mining and aerospace—was originally set up in 1971 but was revamped in March 2015, when it was placed under the direction of the newly formed Council of Economic and Development Affairs (CEDA), chaired by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, aka MBS. This move better-defined PIF’s national strategic responsibilities, particularly in relation to the country’s wide-ranging Vision 2030 strategy which focuses on diversifying away from fossil fuel reliance.
Other PIF tourism investments include the Jeddah-based Red Sea cruise company, Cruise Saudi, where Gebr, Heinemann won a retail concession for shopping onboard; the Saudi Coffee Company; Al Madinah Heritage Company, which focuses on date production; and Sawani, whose products are made with camel milk.
Read the full article here