In 2024, Saudi Arabia processed 18.5 million pilgrims—16.9 million for Umrah and 1.61 million for Hajj—generating $12 billion in annual revenue according to Salaam Gateway research. By 2030, the Kingdom aims to welcome 30 million Umrah pilgrims annually under Vision 2030. But here’s the strategic tension reshaping Middle East OTA investment opportunities: as Saudi Arabia builds government-operated booking infrastructure like Nusuk, regional OTAs face a fundamental question about their long-term role in the sector’s most profitable vertical.
The Middle East OTA market, valued at $19.5 billion in 2024 and projected to reach $43 billion by 2032—a 10.64% CAGR according to Verified Market Research—is splitting into two distinct competitive arenas. One is the global game—where Booking.com and Expedia compete on inventory breadth and price. The other belongs to MENA-native OTAs—regional players like Almosafer, Wego, and Musafir who understand that Hajj quota allocation systems vary by nationality with different processing windows and documentation requirements that change annually, that a Saudi booking for “4 people” often becomes 8 due to extended family dynamics with payments from multiple sources, that mahram requirements for female travelers vary by visa type and nationality, and that Arabic-language business registration documents and Ministry of Hajj approvals are prerequisites for authorized agent status according to Phocuswright’s Middle East research and industry viewpoints from White Sky Hospitality.
Personal observation: In complex markets like the Middle East, I believe homegrown OTAs have the most to gain and could be first to establish a defensible moat. The cultural-operational nuances—government integration requirements, Arabic documentation fluency, installment payment structures, and family travel dynamics—create switching costs that global inventory aggregators struggle to replicate. This isn’t localization; it’s native intelligence as competitive infrastructure.
Regional OTA Performance Data
Almosafer, Saudi Arabia’s dominant OTA and part of Seera Group, reported SAR 1.73 billion ($461 million) in net booking value (NBV) for Q1 2025, up 8% year-over-year according to Seera Group’s investor presentation. More revealing: adjusted EBITDA surged 604% to SAR 35 million, signaling margin expansion as the platform scales. For H1 2025, Seera posted SAR 7.86 billion ($2.1 billion) in total NBV across its travel, car rental, and hospitality segments, up 7% year-over-year, with revenue reaching SAR 2.31 billion ($616 million), up 10% according to Seera’s Q2 2025 earnings report.
The company’s target: SAR 12 billion ($3.2 billion) in annual NBV by 2027, representing a 16-18% CAGR, ahead of a planned IPO. Here’s an insider metric not widely disclosed: the company’s consumer travel take rate sits at 9%, with business travel commanding 12-14% according to Seera’s 2024 earnings call. That’s competitive with global OTAs but applied to a fundamentally different booking mix weighted toward religious travel and regional routes.
Wego, the largest online travel marketplace in MENA, became the most downloaded travel app in the region for the third consecutive year (2023-2025) with 2.6 million monthly active users in May 2025, up 4% year-over-year according to SensorTower data.
Government’s Stronger Distribution Role
Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Hajj and Umrah operates Nusuk, a government platform that serves as the mandatory gateway for all Hajj bookings from 122 countries, including the United States, Europe, and Australia according to Nusuk’s official documentation. This centralized approach ensures service quality, combats fraud, and aligns with Vision 2030’s hospitality transformation goals according to Soul of Saudi and Travel and Tour World reporting.
In August 2025, Saudi Arabia expanded this model with “Nusuk Umrah,” allowing Muslims to book Umrah visas, accommodation, and services directly through the platform according to Gulf News. As of June 10, 2025, all Umrah pilgrims must book accommodation through Nusuk Masar before submitting visa applications, according to Soul of Saudi. Transport bookings—including airport transfers and intercity travel between Makkah and Madinah—also became mandatory. This comprehensive approach ensures pilgrims receive verified, compliant services while strengthening the Kingdom’s religious tourism infrastructure.
By early 2025, Nusuk had surpassed 12 million downloads and operates in 14 languages according to Salaam Gateway. Religious tourism contributes $12 billion annually to Saudi Arabia’s economy—roughly 20% of the non-oil economy and 7% of total GDP—and supports 936,000 jobs, projected to reach 1.6 million by 2030 according to Salaam Gateway and Statista viewpoints. Pilgrims spend $1,300-$4,000 per trip, with Visa reporting a 162% year-on-year surge in Makkah spending during Ramadan 2025.
Seera Group’s Mawasim, the company’s Hajj and Umrah division, exemplifies successful integration as one of the companies licensed by the Ministry of Hajj & Umrah and appears on Nusuk’s authorized service provider list. In December 2021, Seera integrated Mawasim with Maqam, the Ministry of Hajj & Umrah’s official global distribution system, enabling travel agents across 27 markets worldwide—including Egypt, Kuwait, South Africa, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Turkey—to secure Umrah bookings through Mawasim’s portal according to Seera’s press releases.
Almosafer has also secured positioning as an authorized Nusuk flights provider, capitalizing on airline relationships to capture ancillary bookings around Nusuk packages according to Seera’s investor presentations. But the question remains: as Saudi scales to 30 million Umrah pilgrims by 2030, will OTAs serve as distribution partners or just as secondary resellers of inventory?
Middle East OTA Investment Opportunities I’m Tracking
For investors evaluating travel tech in the region, the critical insight—based on my observations—is that defensible moats are being built around cultural-operational intelligence and regulatory integration, not inventory aggregation. Here are the Middle East OTA investment opportunities worth pursuing:
Religious travel infrastructure that integrates directly with government platforms. Seera’s Mawasim positioning as a Nusuk-Maqam integrated provider demonstrates the playbook: capture value as an authorized service provider within the government ecosystem, selling directly to Nusuk or becoming part of the mandatory booking flow. The AI in Smart Hajj & Umrah travel platforms market in Saudi Arabia is valued at approximately $1.1 billion according to Ken Research, indicating strong government appetite for technology partners who can enhance infrastructure and pilgrim experience.
Cultural-operational intelligence layers. Understanding that Egyptian Hajj quotas differ from Pakistani quotas with different submission windows and authorized agents, that family group bookings require coordinating visa applications for relatives with different passport nationalities, that mahram documentation requirements vary by country and visa type—these create switching costs that inventory breadth cannot replicate. Here’s a legitimate fintech opportunity: high-value religious travel bookings are often paid in installments over months, with cash-on-delivery remaining common even for $3,000+ packages. This is a perfect pain point for travel fintech players to address—enabling flexible payment plans, managing currency exchange risk, and building trust mechanisms that align with how Muslim families actually budget for pilgrimage travel.
Regulatory integration platforms. As Saudi Arabia’s National Tourism Monitoring Platform collects accommodation performance data and tourism statistics according to Saudipedia, companies that build connective tissue between government data infrastructure and commercial booking platforms may capture value as essential infrastructure providers. Anytime government shares data—occupancy rates, visitor flows, seasonal patterns, capacity constraints—it helps the entire travel ecosystem adjust and expand using information only government agencies and trade bodies possess. This information sharing is increasing across the region, and it’s a trend I strongly support as it enables smarter investment decisions and better traveler experiences. Saudi Arabia deployed AI for operational infrastructure in Hajj 2025—facial recognition for pilgrim tracking, AI-powered crowd management, and the Digital Nusuk Card integrating medical records and service provider data according to Waya Media and Arab News. The next layer is commercial integration with existing booking systems.
Strategic Positioning for MENA-Native OTAs
The Middle East OTA market is growing at 10.64% CAGR through 2032 according to Verified Market Research, but growth doesn’t equal strategic positioning. Almosafer’s 604% EBITDA surge in Q1 2025 shows margin expansion is possible for companies that secure authorized partner status within government-led infrastructure. These dynamics create distinct Middle East OTA investment opportunities for both incumbents and startups.
Here’s the critical advantage MENA-native OTAs possess: the ability to rapidly act and react as regulations and market trends evolve. When Saudi Arabia announced mandatory Nusuk bookings for Umrah in August 2025, regional players like Almosafer and Mawasim could immediately integrate, train Arabic-speaking support teams, and adjust marketing to reflect new visa requirements. When mahram requirements change or new religious tourism policies emerge, MENA-native OTAs have local legal teams, government relationships, and operational presence to pivot within days, not months.
This agility advantage extends far beyond typical “local knowledge.” It’s about having teams embedded in the regulatory ecosystem, holding Ministry of Hajj approvals directly rather than working through third-party integrators, understanding government and corporate procurement processes with purchase order systems and credit terms, and recognizing that travelers trust regional brands over international names when booking failures have religious consequences. Global OTAs operate with centralized product teams in Amsterdam or Seattle, requiring translation layers, compliance reviews across multiple jurisdictions, and risk-averse decision-making that slows response times. MENA-native players live in the market and react at local speed.
Saudi Arabia welcomes 116 million visitors annually with SR 284 billion ($75.7 billion) in spending according to Gulf News, but religious tourism’s $12 billion represents the highest-margin segment with the deepest cultural moat per Salaam Gateway viewpoints. Whoever masters the intersection of religious observance, regulatory compliance, and seamless booking experience will define Middle East travel distribution for the next decade.
Right now, multiple paths remain viable—authorized partnership, specialized service provision, or complementary technology integration. But the window to establish positioning is narrowing as Nusuk expands from Hajj to Umrah and potentially broader tourism services.
The incumbents—Almosafer, Wego, and authorized service providers like Mawasim—have brand, distribution, and airline relationships. The government has regulatory authority, infrastructure investment, and Vision 2030 political commitment. Startups have speed, focus, and the ability to build specialized solutions. The winners won’t be determined by who moves first, but who builds the integration layer that becomes essential to all parties.
I’ve been writing about travel tech investments for about a year now—this is my 15th article—and I’m still finding my voice. If this viewpoint resonated with you, I’d genuinely appreciate you sharing it with others in travel or venture circles who might benefit from this perspective. If you disagree with my thesis or have data that challenges these observations, please leave a comment or reach out—I learn as much from pushback as from validation. The Middle East travel market moves fast, and collective intelligence always beats individual blind spots.
I’m actively tracking seed-stage teams in Riyadh, Dubai, and beyond building travel infrastructure for the Middle East focused on religious travel tech, cultural-operational intelligence, and regulatory integration platforms. If you’re a founder working in these areas, or an investor sourcing opportunities in this space, let’s connect. Reach out via my contact page.