Red Sea Global: A New Depth of Trust in Regenerative Tourism

A New Model for Tourism

On the western coastline of Saudi Arabia, Red Sea Global is developing the world’s most ambitious tourism destinations.

But this is not traditional resort development.

Red Sea Global’s vision is rooted in regenerative tourism, a philosophy designed to preserve and enhance the natural environment. Renewable energy powers the destination, electric vehicles transport visitors, and guest numbers are carefully managed to protect fragile ecosystems. By 2040, RSG aims to deliver a 30% net conservation benefit through the enhancement of biologically diverse habitats, including mangroves, seagrass, coral reefs and land vegetation.

At its core, the ambition is simple: create destinations where visitors can disconnect from stress and reconnect with nature.

But delivering that experience requires extraordinary coordination behind the scenes — particularly across the data and digital systems that power every visitor interaction.

From the moment a guest begins exploring a trip to The Red Sea and AMAALA to the moment they depart the destination, and after, every interaction contributes to what the organization calls a “Visitor 360” experience.

Sultan Moraished, Group Head of Technology and Corporate Excellence, says: 

“Trust is the foundation of every exceptional experience we create at Red Sea Global. By automating privacy governance and centralizing consent management, we’ve built a digital ecosystem that enables innovation while protecting visitor rights. This is what regenerative tourism looks like in practice.”

-Sultan Moraished, Group Head of Technology and Corporate Excellence, Red Sea Global

For Ulysses Demos, Head of Data Management and Protection at Red Sea Global, ensuring that journey runs seamlessly requires careful coordination across systems, services, and data.

“There are many initial touchpoints where we follow the entire 360 journey – from booking to arrival, experiences across the destination, and finally their departure.”

This “Visitor 360” model relies on coordinated data across systems, making responsible data governance essential to delivering seamless and trusted experiences. Balancing Extraordinary Experiences with Responsible Data Governance. 

To support its visitor experience strategy, Red Sea Global operates a sophisticated digital ecosystem.

Environmental monitoring systems track marine conditions and weather patterns to help protect the surrounding ecosystem, while digital platforms coordinate bookings, transportation, and experiences across the destination.

“We’re interested in the environment, from water clarity to weather patterns, and the interactions of visitor activities in that environment. We want to build an exceptional experience in an exceptional location,” says Demos.

At the same time, visitor interactions generate personal information that must be handled responsibly and transparently. 

Operating in Saudi Arabia requires compliance with the Personal Data Protection Law (PDPL), while international visitors introduce global privacy expectations.

To strengthen its privacy program, Red Sea Global achieved ISO27701 certification, with OneTrust providing the governance foundation needed to manage its growing data ecosystem.

Achieving that level of oversight required far greater visibility into how data was collected, managed, and protected.

When Manual Governance Could No Longer Scale

Before implementing OneTrust, privacy governance relied heavily on manual investigation.

“We relied on massive Excel spreadsheets” Demos recalls.

“We were manually reviewing databases and trying to identify where our critical data elements and golden records actually lived.”

But Red Sea Global’s data environment had grown far beyond what manual oversight could support.

Today the organization manages over a billion rows of data across more than 17,000 individual data features.

“We found it challenging to manage this level of information and draw the required insights while simultaneously aligning with data privacy requirements,” Demos explains.

To support both compliance requirements and the company’s ambitious visitor experience strategy, Red Sea Global needed to automate governance while maintaining transparency and control.

Building the Privacy Foundation for Visitor Trust

Red Sea Global implemented the OneTrust platform to automate privacy governance and centralize consent management across its digital ecosystem.

The platform now supports key governance workflows including:

• Privacy impact assessments
• Vendor risk assessments
• Data subject access requests (DSARs)
• Records of processing activities
• Automated data discovery

At the same time, OneTrust’s CMP and UCPM solutions provide a centralized consent repository across every digital touchpoint.

Websites, mobile applications, and integrated systems now operate from a unified consent framework that captures who consented to what, when, and how. 

“Without this consent, we’re unable legally to utilize any of this information in the first place.”

Hundreds of Hours Saved — and a Happier Team

Automating governance workflows dramatically changed how Red Sea Global’s privacy team operates.

“It’s saved hundreds of hours every month” says Demos.

For a relatively small team supporting a rapidly expanding destination, that efficiency has been transformational.

Automation has removed many of the manual investigations that previously consumed time and resources, allowing the team to focus on higher-value governance initiatives.

“I saw the stress decrease in my team. They’re able to do more with less and with increased efficiency. They’re happier — and in turn, I’m happy,” says Demos.

For an organization focused on restoring both the environment and the wellbeing of its visitors, improving the wellbeing of its own teams is a natural extension of that mission.

From Vendor to Trusted Partner

During implementation, the OneTrust team worked closely with Red Sea Global to overcome early challenges and keep the program on track.

“Everyone, including the area OneTrust VP, was on board to support us and they made sure the integrated solution was a success” says Demos.

“That showed me that OneTrust is not that vendor that sells and disappears. We partnered with OneTrust, and the partnership continues to grow.”

Preparing for the Future of Responsible AI

With its privacy foundation now in place, Red Sea Global is preparing for the next frontier: AI governance. 

“We always want to be ahead of the curve,” says Demos. “We’re actively rolling out our own AI solutions and that incurs risk associated with the overall model and associated underlying data. We need governance across the entire AI lifecycle.”

“Thus far in user acceptance testing it’s been really positive. It looks great.”

Trust at the Heart of the Visitor Experience

For Red Sea Global, privacy governance is not simply about regulatory compliance.

It is about protecting the trust that makes extraordinary visitor experiences possible. 

By automating governance and centralizing consent management, Red Sea Global has built a digital foundation that supports innovation and environmental stewardship.

As The Red Sea and AMAALA destinations continue to grow, that foundation ensures every visitor experience remains seamless, responsible, and built on trust.

Learn how OneTrust’s unified governance platform connects data, privacy, consent, and risk to support trusted experiences.