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RIYADH: Sustainable tourism has become a key measure of ����ֱ��’s transformation, as the Kingdom seeks to balance economic growth with cultural preservation and environmental sustainability.

Speaking to Arab News, a media partner at Athar Festival, Abdulrahman Al-Jefri, destination and live assets executive director at Diriyah Co., said global definitions of sustainability are changing.

“The world is shifting into a new definition for sustainability, where today we have very specific technologies called sustainable tourism,” he said.

“Sustainable tourism is not just preserving the world for the younger generation, the next generation, it’s actually recreating the asset that has been loose, lost or consumed.”

Al-Jefri said tourism has one of the highest environmental impacts due to its carbon footprint and waste across the value chain.

He added that Diriyah’s approach emphasizes walkability, traditional design and landscape protection to reduce that impact.

“We are mandated to preserve the greenery that we have had for 2,000 years in Wadi Hanifa,” he said. “Today, we’re preserving all trees and actually planting more than 1 million trees in our destination. And the architecture methodology, which is mud brick, is a breathable material and low-rise. It’s also a promoter for these kind of sustainable tools.”

Al-Jefri said the Kingdom’s growing tourism sector is also creating new opportunities for young Saudis, and expanding destinations beyond religious tourism.

He added that the tourism sector is now a key pillar of the national plan to diversify income sources.

During a panel titled “Beyond Moments: Transforming Tourism Experiences into Legacies in the Middle East,” Melanie De Souza, destination marketing executive director at the Royal Commission for AlUla, said travel expectations are shifting globally.

She added that people are looking for meaning and “deep cultural immersion and connection.

“I think, increasingly, the customer of today is making decisions based on their own values,” she added. “What is really resonating with customers is this very serious responsibility we feel, to protect and preserve the heritage we have inherited, to really restore our landscapes and breathe wild with the ultimate hope.”

Wadha Al-Nafjan, senior visitor services manager at the King Salman Park Foundation, said visitor experiences should move beyond services to foster emotional connection.

“(It can be done) by designing emotional connection to a place through active participation,” she said.

She added that destinations must continuously evolve to keep visitors engaged and that lasting value in tourism comes from how projects improve people’s lives.

“Moments create attention but I think legacies are built when you design with the intention of improving people’s lives,” Al-Nafjan said.

RIYADH: Artificial intelligence is pushing new boundaries with the launch of IZZI AI, a platform designed to help Saudi businesses connect more meaningfully with their clients.

The announcement was made at the annual Athar Festival of Creativity on Oct. 21.  

Najib Sabbagh, CEO of Sunny Side Up, told Arab News, which is the event’s media partner, that the platform uses AI to create digital agents that guide users through any of their needs.

Positioned as a “breakthrough in customer engagement and sales automation,” IZZI AI can transform everyday conversations into brand connections. Its debut in Riyadh underscores the Kingdom’s appetite for innovation and the festival’s role as a launchpad for new ideas.

Sabbagh used ����ֱ��’s growing real estate market as an example. The AI agents can present virtual video tours of physical spaces in real time, allowing clients to explore apartments, properties, and neighborhoods from their homes.

He said the idea stemmed from challenges faced by property buyers searching online. Unlike human agents with limited availability, AI agents would respond instantly to user questions and offer detailed information such as layout, amenities, weather forecasts, and proximity to landmarks.

“This allows you, today, to kind of ask every question you need, get every answer you need, directly,” Sabbagh said. “If there was a human agent, he can’t give you 20 minutes of his time, whereas this AI can take a million calls daily.”

The platform draws information from a knowledge base built from each client’s data. “We put it all there from their website, from their social pages, etc. And IZZI would only answer within that knowledge base,” he added.

Sabbagh also noted that while social media enables communication and information exchange, it often lacks depth. IZZI AI is the next stage of digital engagement that goes beyond clicks and views to build real connections between brands and people.

As ����ֱ�� accelerates toward a tech-driven future, innovations unveiled at events like Athar Festival reflect how creativity and technology are merging to redefine communication and customer experience.