By Hanan Alnufaie
The Saudi Commission for Tourism and Heritage (SCTH), while welcoming Careem’s expansion into five new cities in the Kingdom, said its partnership with the car hailing service would allow making transportation choices more accessible to all customers.
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Dr. Waleed Alhemaidi and Dr. Abdullah Elias
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Vice President of Tourism Regions at the Commission Dr. Waleed Alhemaidi, in a joint press conference with Careem cofounder and other representatives at the commission’s headquarters in Riyadh, said the success of tourism is underpinned by the streamlined transport available, and the entry of Careem in five new Saudi cities is welcome in this regard.
Careem, the region’s leading app-based car booking service, has been strengthening its position in Saudi Arabia by growing its presence in the majority of its cities. And following the partnership with the SCTH, Careem envisages expansion to more cities by the end of the year.
Alhemaidi said: “Success in this growing industry in the Kingdom will not be complete without the streamlining of all its pillars. One of the most important pillars is transportation. Many of the tourist attractions are in very far away sites. Therefore, we need to facilitate transport to these areas for all our tourists.
“The best thing was to cooperate with a pioneering and well-known company such as Careem. Careem has been adopting innovative programs to expand and win the trust of all its clients. There are and will be plans in collaboration with Careem such that they are part of our strategies to increase the tourists’ awareness of the best attractions we have in every city and to deliver information regarding tourism.
“We are glad also to say that our commission has been supporting all companies that share similar vision on tourism. Careem is part of all this due to the role it plays not only in transportation services but also in creating jobs for Saudi youth, and providing drivers with workshops and courses on tourism and the sites in the city they work in. We are very keen on our future cooperation regarding increasing the number of visitors to the tourist sites in all cities.”
Cofounder of Careem Dr. Abdullah Elias said: “We are very glad to be part of this booming sector. Let me, first, express our happiness in being allowed entry into five new cities in the Kingdom which are: Asir, Tabuk, Jazan, Al-Baha, and Taif. In these five cities we will be providing our services. We do not want to be only facilitating the transportation of families but we want also to be part of the growth in tourism.”
When asked about how a citizen – who is also the first target of tourism — can avail the company’s plans or services in collaboration with SCTH, Elias commented: “Careem has an unmatched effort in commercializing. Whenever we enter a new city or area with the collaboration with the commission, we always send emails to our clients, who have reached 2 million across the Kingdom, to creatively tell them about our services.
“We enter the city in a very innovative way by telling the locals about the best tourist attractions, events and the activities they have at weekends, holidays, and vacations. We plan it with them. We also advertise by using locals with very pure dialects. Let me give you an example: In Jazan, we used people with pure Jazani dialect that sounded very strange at the beginning because many people do not do not know about the Jazani dialect. Then people liked it very much. So we helped in spreading some of the old words and idioms. This is considered part of the culture, and spreading regional dialects is kind of spreading sub interesting cultures we have here in the Kingdom.
“Like we always say, one of our core values is to facilitate the transportation for families but we have also another goal which is to positively contribute to the society, we reach that goal on many aspects like: in 5 months only, 6,000 Saudis have become part of us as Careem captains. This has created either additional income for the Saudis or to some it is the main and only job.
“When it comes to our collaboration with the commission, we believe in the importance of educating our captains to be fully aware of the attraction sites, so they can directly tell the tourists or even the citizen who might not know about the sites, its importance. The captains can also speak of the activities, events and entertainment shows that can help the family to enjoy and do something beneficial as well. We will greatly benefit from the program the commission has regarding tourist guides “Tamkeen”. There will be cooperation concerning this aspect as well.”
With regards the safety Careem ensures for all its clients, he highlighted: “We from the beginning ask him for an official record that shows he has no blemishes and has not committed any crime. We also take his fingerprints along with his personal information and a copy of the ID and car information. In addition, any contact between the client and the captain must be done through Careem App, which blocks the phone number of both. So no one can know the phone number of the other. Even the rate, the captain cannot know who gave him this low rate. We respect the privacy of both.
“Additionally, there is a call center, and when a problem happens the client can directly contact us. And in every street, there is a Careem car, so we can intervene quickly to stop any possible incident. Sincerely our Saudi captains always get very high ratings. We have 40,000 captains across the Kingdom, 75% of them are Saudis and we plan to attract more inshAllah. We also give them an introductory course of 3 hours on how to use our apps and programs and the other half is on how to treat the client before, during, and after trip.”
When asked about how Careem will cope with the growing number of visitors and tourists during certain times of the year in certain cities such as: Abha in summer, he said: “Many of our captains ask us if he can travel in Abha, Jeddah... etc. for tourism or because his family lives there and work from there, we answer always yes. So he enjoys his vacation and makes money at the same time. If he wants to work, he can simply open the app and if he does not want to he can simply close it as well.
“The high season in Kingdom is summer, most of our captains have vacations from university. We convince them of why not go to Abha or Baha to make money during summer and tell people about touristic destinations and events. It is not an easy task, but we have learned to be persistent in accomplishing our tasks.”
