How women are driving Intrepid's exploration of Saudi Arabia

Ranking 131st in the World Economic Forum’s Gender Gap index, Saudi Arabia remains a conservative society where women continue to have less rights than men. Women, though, have in recent years been granted certain rights in recent years, such as the right to vote and to drive.

Since 2018, women have been permitted to launch their own businesses without the consent of a male guardian, which has led to the creation of a number of female-owned travel, tourism and hospitality businesses.

Women too have become and increasingly significant and important part of the country’s tourism economy, now representing 30% of the sector’s workforce.

Bencheikh believes the most interesting and intriguing part of the trip will be to give women from other countries and cultures the opportunity to experience authentic insights into the lives of local Saudi women.

The tour has been developed by Intrepid in partnership with local operator and mother-of-two Sara Omar, who has herself travelled to more than 70 countries and worked in the country’s outbound tourism sector, taking Saudi women to places like South America and Europe before starting her own destination management company.

Starting from Riyadh and winding up in Jeddah, the 12-day trip features excursions to the likes of Madinah – Islam’s second-holiest site after Mecca – and Unesco World Heritage site Hegra. All tours and excursions are led by female guides.

Other experiences include a stay at a female-owned hotel, a visit to a citrus farm run by two sisters where visitors will eat lunch under the trees, and a trip to a female-owned beauty salon.

Guests will also visit a shop that sells abayas, a traditional female Muslim robe, and go on a Red Sea cruise before relaxing at a female-only, private beach.

“There’s a lot of fun in this trip that involves learning about a new culture, cooking, snorkelling in beautiful waters and visiting a holy site which has recently opened to non-Muslims,” Bencheikh reveals.

She tells TTG all businesses involved in the tour have been vetted to make sure they’re truly female-owned and operate with respect to international labour laws, such as paying staff fairly.

“We have guidelines, for example it’s pretty clear the guides will be female and they are probably the most important part of the trip because they are the storytellers, they are the ones connecting us with the locals,” she adds.