Indian Consul General Mohammed Shahid Alam inaugurated on Wednesday the Jeddah office of Akbar Travels and Tourism Company. The colorful ceremony was held at its Jeddah City Center premises in the Mushrifa district in the presence of K. V. Abdul Nazar, chairman and managing director of Akbar Travels of India Group, and Ashiya Abdul Nazar, director of the group. Those who attended the event also included senior officials of Akbar Travels of India Group and Akbar Travels and Tourism Company such as Shahid Khan, global sales head; Shruthi Nair, executive assistant to CMD; Santhosh Cheriyan, GCC vice president; Abdul Jaleel, general manager of finance GCC; Ahamed Kasim, online operations manager; Yunus Padungal, regional manager, Riyadh; Azher Qureshi, general manager KSA; Mohammed Saeed, Jeddah manager; Sameer AV, head of online sales KSA; and Shabeer Ahmed, City Center office manager. Senior executives of several Saudi and Gulf airlines and travel and tourism companies also participated in the inaugural session. Earlier, addressing a press conference, Akbar Travels and Tourism Company senior officials unveiled the company’s plans to tap the huge potential of the booming travel and tourism industry in the Kingdom in the post coronavirus pandemic period. The company joined hands with the Saudi Ministry of Tourism to attract citizens of the Gulf Cooperation Council states and other Asian countries to Saudi Arabia. “We have plans to take advantage of the vast opportunities in the Kingdom’s travel and tourism sector, thanks to Saudi Arabia’s ambitious Vision 2030. The opening of the Jeddah office would be a great headway as Jeddah is the gateway to the Two Holy Mosques,” said Ashiya Abdul Nazar, director of Akbar Group. The company has formulated several plans and programs to promote inbound and outbound tourism programs between Saudi Arabia and many major global destinations, especially Indian destinations. “As part of our drive to contribute to Vision 2030, we have planned attractive packages to Saudi tourists to India and vice versa. The major thrust of our plan is to provide training and jobs to young enterprising Saudi men and women so as to make them experts in the travel and tourism sector,” she said adding that women would constitute half of the Saudi staff to be hired by the company. The company has opened six branches in Riyadh and Eastern Province and its 8th branch will be opened in Hamdaniya neighborhood of Jeddah in the near future. It also started preparations to open branches in Makkah, Madinah, Tabuk, Abha and Jazan. The company’s tourism plans include Arabian Journeys, Al-Nazar Kitchen, Akbar Study Tour and so on. Ashiya said that the group has more than150 branches in various parts of the world and its focus is on further spreading its wings to all around the world. “We plan on spreading across Africa and the entire Far East. We want to popularise India as a unique destination through medical, holiday and study tourism,” she added.