Transforming MENA Experiential Tourism: Q&A with Mostafa Attia on Seyaha’s Digitization of Experiences in the Region

Interview edited by Omar Ramy, Staff Writer.

Note from the Editors: This interview has been edited for clarity and length, while preserving the speaker's intent.

Founder of Seyaha, Mostafa Attia is on the verge of taking over MENA’s tours and activities sector with his startup, which he calls the Shopify for tour operators and tour guides. Seyaha was established in March 2024, with a focus on experiential tourism to become a B2B marketplace enabler for small hotels. As the journey developed, it became an academy, tech hotspot and a pioneer in its sector. 

Attia launched his first startup in 1997, and after he sold it, he joined Link.net. He was involved in the first joint venture between Link.net and MSN, to launch MSN Arabia. He has since undertaken several prominent roles globally, including with Omio, the largest unicorn for ground transportation in Europe, as they were heading towards monetization and building their ad tech product suite. 

In 2022, he joined Booking.com as an Advisory Board Member, where he currently provides support in strategic partnerships, hospitality management and monetization. His ultimate return to the region was to help MENA countries promote and develop their tourism and hospitality sectors–specifically the UAE and Saudi Arabia. Fast forward to 2023, he decided to establish his new venture, Seyaha, 26 years after establishing his first startup.

The Dyorama: What challenges did you face while launching Seyaha in Saudi Arabia, and how did your initial vision for the company evolve to penetrate the market gaps?

Mostafa Attia: When we wanted to launch Seyaha, it was mainly a B2B marketplace enabler for small hotels. I had my ideas, but it was challenging. I had never come to Saudi Arabia or even visited. Hence, opening a company in a country that you have never set foot in before was very challenging.

I wanted to build a channel manager in hospitality. However, if the country wants to open up and bring more tourists, or become more scalable, these solutions would not be effective. I quickly shifted my idea from a channel manager into a B2B platform, which builds something that would empower tour operators. We built a full booking management system, and a whole ticketing management solution for every component, which tour operators need to standardize the way that they receive bookings.

The Dyorama: How did your vision end up shaping the company's mission and values today?

Mostafa Attia: Our vision and journey has allowed us to reach what we’ve reached today effectively and efficiently. Once you download our app, we verify that you're a real licensed tour operator and we give you the tools to complete your profile. When you click save, we automatically translate your information into 25 languages. Suddenly, every tour operator has a website under their name, which accepts twenty currencies without a single line of coding and sells their products or services. 

We make it smooth for any tour operator to have a website that sells their products and have direct incoming bookings within ten minutes. Additionally, we build the distribution platform for them and with one click, it will be pushed to Booking.com, Expedia and all global OTA providers. 

The Dyorama: How has Seyaha navigated the challenges of a saturated market filled with numerous stakeholders and competition?

Mostafa Attia: They were very positive about it. In the last ten months, we onboarded 700+ companies who are already using our services. However, the Saudi market has a lot of moving forces, as their supply is very thin and is not really diverse. We are basically building a supermarket, but we don't have enough products on the shelves. So what did we do?

We’ve slightly pivoted into market development, in the sense that we launched an academy to help upskill tour operators and tour guides. We teamed up with the Kingdom’s Ministry of Tourism, as well as the Royal Commission for Riyadh and AlUla along with many local municipalities. They really welcomed the approach, because it aligns with their 2030 vision. 

We empower the locals of the region to launch new tours and attractions. We are willing to train them to build the kind of tools they need to help them progress. On the other hand, there are others using very primitive ways to market themselves, and no one has heard about them; so there is supply, but it's very difficult to find as it's not really digitized.

The Dyorama: What were your main challenges, and how did Seyaha successfully capitalize on partnerships to overcome these obstacles?

Mostafa Attia: The lack of digitization was the main drawback, because you weren’t able to book an experience in advance or even pay for it online. You also don't get a ticket or an invoice. It's basically someone who knows someone and you tell them that you are traveling, and you ask them if they know someone who can assist them at their destination. In most cases, they give them a WhatsApp number and you call the guy once you arrive who manages things for you

All of these transactions are cash-based, and they are not on anyone's radar. This is why we went to Saudi’s Ministry of Tourism and approached them to build a relationship. They helped us a lot and we also helped them in building dashboards to provide them with insights. These insights include what the customers are looking for,  and where the gaps are in the market. 

The Dyorama: Can you provide an example from your portfolio that demonstrates a tour or attraction's journey from upskilling to government recognition?

Mostafa Attia: The aim is not just to train people on soft skills, but to launch companies that would own their tours. We teamed up with Monshaat in Saudi Arabia and Namaa Al Munawara, in order to operate tourism business accelerators. 

We ran a three week program where we took people who literally joined with just ideas. Some of them have farms or old houses, and they wanted to transform these farms into tourist attractions. 

They have ideas, but they don't know how to implement them, so we helped them through this three week program. We worked with them individually to vet their ideas, come up with full business cases, and then helped them prepare to meet with the Saudi Development Fund.

The Dyorama: How do you view the current preferences of visitors from across the world?

Mostafa Attia: Pre-COVID, people would book a destination, and then find out what they're going to do there. Post-COVID, people pick attractions, decide on what they want to do, and it is our role to find a place that offers them the experience that they want.

I think experiential tourism is really leading over hotels and flights. Tourists just want to have an experience; they don't want to go to Paris anymore just because it's Paris or to see the Eiffel Tower. They want to have an “Emily in Paris” experience.

The Dyorama: Do you think MENA countries stand a chance to compete with global giants in the field of experiential tourism?

Mostafa Attia: People want adventures and thrills, and they want to have pictures of these experiences on their Instagram. They want to have pictures where they can brag about how no one else in their circles has been to that place; and MENA offers endless gems of these types of experiences. They no longer want to just stand in front of the Pyramids, Eiffel Tower or Big Ben.

You have the traditional travelers: people who want to go to the really traditional destinations, like London, Paris, or Barcelona. But you also have people who want to have different adventures, which is the stage Saudi Arabia has been excelling at, with its diverse culture and traditions.

The Dyorama: In your opinion, how was Saudi Arabia able to reform and facelift its tourism industry, and how is this change being perceived by locals and foreigners?

Mostafa Attia: There are a lot of incentives from the government’s side for people who work in the tourism sector. I think they have pledged that over 100,000 people would be trained on tourism related skills every year. This is because they really want to have the workforce ready for the Asia Cup in 2027, World Cup 2034 and all of these upcoming major events.

However, they are still challenged with the ongoing concerns that foreign tourists have, especially from ladies. They ask if it is safe for them and what they should wear, because many changes in customs are very recent. 

The Dyorama: How are you directly working with any government entities when it comes to leaning into the data that you're generating for them?

Mostafa Attia: We're not really only building tech or an academy, but we can help you with everything. If you want to build something like a dashboard where you can aggregate ratings, we can help. Also, we can provide insights on the demand or the supply of these experiences. 

This is an ecosystem that we have built, and we believe that this ecosystem is easy to replicate elsewhere. So our plan of course is not just to remain in Saudi, but definitely expand to Oman, Qatar, Egypt, Tunisia, and Morocco, because these are very similar markets.

The Dyorama: How do you view Seyaha’s strategy to cope with the future of  experiential and traditional tourism?

Mostafa Attia: I would say traditional tourism is overexposed. I think people want to come to Egypt to experience something different beyond just going to the Pyramids, or just staying at a resort on a beach. They want to go and see farms, some kind of localized experience, or camp in nice places. Also, local authentic tools get much more priority and care from our side. 

Seyaha would definitely play a role in helping customers discover these kinds of tools, and also enable the service providers to scale their business. This enables them to have a marketing machine and structured booking management system. We already have our distribution reaching all the way to hotels and several hotel chains in Saudi Arabia. Once you check in and you go to your room, you will find a small QR code branded with the hotel logo where it says “Riyadh Discovery”, for example. You scan it, book through it directly, and go to your experience; and all of the pre-experience steps are completed digitally.  

The Dyorama: What's a surprising hobby or passion outside of your work that maybe most people wouldn't expect? 

Mostafa Attia:  I used to be in the music production scene in Cairo, I knew all the producers, and I even worked with Rotana’s music production company. I spent hundreds and hundreds of hours in studios. Back in the days I used to be a music producer. I still have a very good musical ear and taste. I can recognize the hits of an album once I listen to it.