Jeddah-based mobility app Rehla CR has shifted its focus on a rather overlooked area of the ride-hailing space in Saudi Arabia: tourism.

The company plans to connect customers with tour guides across tourist spots such as Abha and AlUla. It has obtained the necessary licenses from the Ministry of Tourism and hopes to introduce this service later this year.

“Rehla has the same license as ride-hailing apps Uber and Careem, but we specialize in inter-city journeys. The app is like Airbnb, except our product is a car seat rather than a bed,” Rehla CR CEO Dr. Abdulrahman Al-Shikhy told Arab News.

The company currently focuses on inter-city trips around the Umrah circuit in Makkah, Medina and Jeddah and will soon be covering the whole of Saudi Arabia.

According to Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Transportation, the Kingdom clocks more than 53 million inter-city trips in a month.

Launched in 2020, the mobility firm started as a bootstrap operation with SR1 million in capital raised from a bank loan, Al-Shikhy’s family support and later via the crowdfunding platform Scopeer.

As the operation gains more traction and attracts drivers with a generous commission structure, Al-Shikhy is more optimistic about further investment rounds.