Saudi's Tayyar to expand online travel business into Egypt

Al Tayyar Travel Group, Saudi Arabia’s largest travel company, is planning to expand into Egypt in early 2018, its chief executive told Reuters.

The move is part of a broader restructuring to build the firm’s leisure, hospitality and online sales services.

Al Tayyar announced on Wednesday that its board had approved a strategic transformation plan to consolidate its some two dozen subsidiaries into four new business units.

The plan shifts the firm’s focus from a traditionally heavy reliance on government travel contracts into advising leisure travelers on tourism plans, operating hotels and developing Arabic-language platforms for online ticket booking.