More and more tourists from the Gulf are visiting Switzerland. The Switzerland Tourism ST regional office is in Dubai, where Market Manager GCC Matthias Albrecht and his team successfully convinced one of the most popular TV soaps in the Arab world to film in Switzerland.

Reaching decision-makers

“Saudiyat” is the story of three women, about love, jealousy and envy. It is planned to be broadcasted during Ramadan between May and June 2018 and will reach 150 million viewers across numerous Arab states. Thanks to social media, fans and followers in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Oman could already follow the action during filming, as the actors reported on their time in Switzerland. ST knows from experience that women make the booking decisions in Arab families. This makes this campaign all the more important, as this soap opera is mainly watched by women.

ST Media Relations relayed the story behind the filming to multiple Swiss journalists. These included TeleZüri, Blick TV (German) and “Sonntagsblick”. CNN Money Switzerland even followed the filming with its own camera team.