Ali Baba Group annual report 2022

To get more familiar with Ali Baba Travels Company, first, we need to introduce the Ali Baba Group.

This annual report Translated by Iran digital economy annotation, the Ali Baba Group is composed of various companies, including Ali Baba Travels, Jabama, Madgo, Jaran, Simorgh, and others. They are all active in the tourism industry and are involved in developing travel-related technologies. The group was founded in 2014 and concluded the year 2022 with 980 skilled and professional employees.

Ali Baba’s Commitment:

We are committed to empowering society to have a worthy travel experience by harnessing the power of technology. We aim to make the community so capable that everyone can have access to a dignified travel experience.

The Travel Cycle:

• Dreaming of Travel
• Planning
• Ticket Booking
• Travel Experience
• Sharing and Reliving Travel Memories

A glimpse of global tourism in 2022:

According to the statistics from the World Tourism Organization, the number of international travelers in 2022 doubled compared to the previous year, reaching 900 million tourists. However, this number is only 63% of the pre-pandemic figures. The United States, China, Germany, Japan, and the United Kingdom have the largest shares of the global tourism market. The USA leads with 190.4 million dollars, followed by China with 154.1 million dollars. In December 2022, reports indicated that online travel companies had dominated these two countries’ markets, with booking.com, Airbnb, and Trip estimated to be worth 78,171, and 54,137, and 22.076 million dollars, respectively.

The world is moving rapidly towards pre-pandemic statistics and is continuously progressing on the marketing path. Similarly, in Iran, we can observe the effects of returning to previous statistics, even though we face various obstacles and challenges, while the world is sprinting towards a free race.

2023 at a glance:

• 14,992,000 hours of user presence on the website and application
• Offering more than 15 million travel services
• 127,500,000 website visits
• 34,662,000 application visits
• Responding to 2,004,812 calls
• Record sales with 1.21 services delivered per second
• Coverage in 1351 locations worldwide
• Publishing 8 episodes on the Radio Around the World podcast
• Publishing 215 articles in the Ali Baba magazine
• Publishing 77 books in the Ali Baba Travel Book Collection
• Receiving 5,107 pieces of work in a thousand and one journey
• Over 980 thousand views on Ali Baba Plus.

Colorful Moments of the Year 2023:

• Unveiling of Ali Baba’s new mascots
• Launching of the “Safar Kart” (Ali Baba’s Corporate Gift Card)
• Official FIFA representation in Iran for the 2022 World Cup
• Introduction of Travel Insurance products
• Launching of Group Tour packages
• Introducing Visa services

Percentage Growth of Sales for Each Product in 2023 compared to 2022:

• Domestic flights = 5%
• International flights = 35%
• Domestic hotels = 29%
• International hotels = 39%
• Train tickets = 23%
• Bus tickets = 83%
• Domestic tours = 22%
• International tours = 24%

Average and Percentage Growth of Product Prices:

• Domestic flights: 9,840,000 Rials with a 25% price increase compared to the previous year.
• International flights: 57,260,000 Rials with a 43% price increase compared to the previous year.
• Domestic hotels: 12,480,000 Rials with a 63% price increase compared to the previous year.
• International hotels: 36,680,000 Rials with a 46% price increase compared to the previous year.
• Train tickets: 2,222,661 Rials with a 44% price increase compared to the previous year.
• Bus tickets: 1,630,000 Rials with a 36% price increase compared to the previous year.
• Domestic tours: 40,621,000 Rials with a 38% price increase compared to the previous year.
• International tours: 132,553,000 Rials with a 44% price increase compared to the previous year.

Percentage Growth of Gross Rial Sales Value:

• 54.46% growth in the amount of user presence on the website and application.
• Users spent a total of 899 million minutes on Ali Baba, showing a 68.52% growth compared to the previous year.

Comparison of Purchases from the Website and Application:

• Purchase from the website: 77.6%
• Purchase from the application: 22.4%

Gender of Users:

• Male users: 66%
• Female users: 34%

User Segmentation based on Age Groups:

• 18-24 years: 33.03%
• 25-34 years: 32.62%
• 35-44 years: 17.1%
• 45-54 years: 8.17%
• 55-64 years: 5.37%
• 65+ years: 3.71%
• More than 60% of Ali Baba’s users are under 34 years old.

Ali Baba’s Sales Records:

• The highest number of visits and purchases occurred at 2 PM, while the lowest was at 4 AM.
• The fastest purchase was made in 11 seconds for a domestic flight ticket.
• The longest purchase took 7 hours and 50 minutes for a hotel booking abroad.
• The longest stay at a hotel was 42 days in Istanbul.

Most Popular Domestic Flight Routes:

• Tehran to Mashhad and Mashhad to Tehran
• Tehran to Kish and Kish to Tehran
• Ahvaz to Tehran

Most Popular International Flight Routes:

• Istanbul to Tehran and Tehran to Istanbul
• Tehran to Dubai and Dubai to Tehran
• Tehran to Najaf

Most Popular Rail Routes:

• Mashhad to Tehran and Tehran to Mashhad
• Qom to Tehran and Tehran to Qom
• Yazd to Tehran

Most Popular Bus Routes:

• Isfahan to Tehran and Tehran to Isfahan
• Tehran to Tabriz
• Tehran to Mashhad and Tehran to Rasht

Most Popular Tour Destinations:

• Tehran to Kish
• Tehran to Istanbul
• Tehran to Mashhad
• Tehran to Dubai
• Tehran to Qeshm

Most Popular Domestic Hotel Destinations:

• Mashhad
• Tehran
• Kish

Most Popular International Hotel Destinations:

• Istanbul
• Dubai
• Van

Top-selling Days of the Year:

• 25th of Khordad (June 14th)
• 5th of Ordibehesht (April 25th)
• 15th of Esfand (March 6th)

New Ali Baba Services:

• Travel Insurance
• Visa Services
• Ali Baba SafarKart (Corporate Gift Card)
• Group Tours

Customer Support Center:

• Responded to over 2 million calls.
• Total talk time: 375,280,474 seconds
• Average user rating: 4.87 out of 5

Number of Handled Calls:

• Answered calls: 2,004,812 with a 4.8% increase compared to the previous year
• Refunds: 1,186,180 with a 30.08% increase compared to the previous year
• Total refund amount: 9,585,088,136,116 Toman with an 87.15% increase compared to the previous year
• Number of Customer Support Staff: 305 employees, a 5.8% decrease compared to the previous year.

Records of Ali Baba:

• Highest number of calls in a day: 14,777 calls.
• Highest number of refunds in a day: 6,459 refunds due to flight cancellations caused by heavy snowfall in Mashhad.

Reasons for Customer Calls in 2023:

• Travel consultation
• Refunds
• Inquiries about travel regulations
• Familiarity with purchasing from the website and application
• Understanding the request submission process

The main reasons for customer calls in 2023 have not changed significantly compared to the previous year, but the addition of “Understanding the request submission process” might be due to the introduction of new purchasing processes in the previous year.

New Services in the Customer Support Center:

• Online Ali Baba Support Center had 3.2 million visits.
• Smart voice call service.
• Consultation and phone purchases.

Percentage Growth of Technology Usage in the Customer Support Center compared to 2022:

• Back Call Agent: The need for users to make callbacks decreased due to improved response quality, increased technical knowledge of representatives, and process improvements.

• Back Call: The need for users to make callbacks without waiting decreased due to improved response quality and reduced waiting time in the queue.

• Ticketing Online: The use of online support increased as a result of integrating user requests and encouraging more use of online support.

• IVR (Interactive Voice Response): With the development of this technology, users could receive services by entering their order numbers, leading to improved quality and increased user preference.

• Support Quick: With the improvement of this technology’s efficiency, users showed an increased tendency to use it.

Ali Baba’s Content Products:

• Publishing 215 travel-related articles in Ali Baba magazine.
• Conducting the “Thousand and One Journey” competition and receiving 5,107 contributions.
• Registering 14,476 new experiences from travelers on Ali Baba Plus.
• Releasing 8 new episodes on the Radio Around the World podcast.
• Publishing 7 new books in the Ali Baba Travel Book Collection.

Ali Baba’s Tourism Magazine:

• Number of visitors: 3.6 times more visitors than the British Museum.
• Annual visitors to Ali Baba’s tourism magazine: 22,167,777.
• Number of users: 12,268,595.
• Page views: 22,167,777.
• Content produced: 215 articles.
• Total places introduced: 315.

Visitor Cities to the Magazine:

• Tehran: 38%
• Isfahan: 9%
• Shiraz: 9%
• Karaj: 7%
• Tabriz: 6%
• Ahvaz: 3%
• Other: 28%

Most Viewed Articles in the Magazine:

• Tehran Metro
• Departure Taxes
• Travel Currency
• Passport
• Restrictions on Hotels, Flights, and Tours

Travel, from your ear to all over the World:

Radio Around the World podcast, an exclusive podcast of Ali Baba, where in each episode, famous and beloved guests share their travel experiences. This podcast is available on podcast platforms such as CastBox, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Shenoto, etc.

Most Listened Episode in 2023:

The most popular episode published in 2023 was “Traveling Through the Narration of Mansour Zabetian.”

Comprehensive Travel and Recreation Source in Tourist Cities:

Ali Baba Travel Book Collection is undoubtedly one of the most comprehensive Persian-language sources on travel and recreation in tourist cities. These interactive books function similarly to applications and are available electronically and free of charge to Ali Baba’s fellow travelers and all enthusiasts. In the past year, 7 volumes of Ali Baba Travel Book Collection were published, reaching a total of 11 titles.

List of Published Books in 2023:

• Travel Book: Anzali
• Travel Book: Shiraz
• Travel Book: Mashhad
• Travel Book: Dubai
• Travel Book: Yazd
• Travel Book: Rasht
• Travel Book: Tehran

The “Thousand and One Journey” Contest:

Ali Baba’s travelogue writing competition, the largest of its kind in Iran, held in 2023. Participants could enter in two categories: travelogue writing and travel memories. Their works were evaluated by Mr. Mansour Zabetian (director, producer, presenter, and travel writer) in the expert jury and by the public in the People’s Choice category.

First Edition of the “Thousand and One Journey” Results:

• Total number of received works: 5,107
• Travelogue category: 1,136 works
• Travel memory category: 3,971 works
• Total number of votes (People’s Choice): 44,084
• Submission period: 20 Ordibehesht to 31 Tir
• Most written-about cities in the travelogues: Mashhad (domestic) and Istanbul (foreign)
• Age range of participants: Minimum age: 11 years / Maximum age: 69 years.

Ali Baba Plus:

Ali Baba Plus is a platform where all fellow travelers of Ali Baba and other travelers can register their textual or visual experiences of any attraction, city, restaurant, market, etc., under their own name and interact with each other. Ali Baba Plus can be a guiding light for future travelers who seek to savor the sweet taste of an informed journey with the help of others.

Performance of Ali Baba Plus in 2023:

• Number of cities covered: 13 cities
• Cities added in 2023: Ahvaz, Yazd, Gorgan, Bushehr, Chabahar, Bandar Abbas, and Kermanshah
• Number of registered experiences: 14,476
• Most experienced city: Mashhad with 2,437 experiences

Social Responsibility in Numbers – Simorgh’s Performance in 2023:

Simorgh Institute, the first social responsibility institute focused on providing medical travels in Iran and the Middle East, is Ali Baba’s primary social responsibility and facilitates medical travels (ticketing and accommodation) for children (under 18 years old) in underprivileged areas.

The vision of this institute is to enable every child in this land to have the opportunity for health travel, regardless of the reasons they are unable to travel for treatment. Simorgh is on the path to becoming a national brand of social responsibility in the travel industry, with a vision to create a human-friendly summit.

Number of Travel Accomplishments by Simorgh:

• Number of travels in 2023: 2,735, with an 84.55% growth compared to the previous year.
• Person/kilometer traveled: 2,163,564 person-kilometers, with a 22.88% growth compared to the previous year.

Distribution of Simorgh’s Services by Product:

• Number of air travels: 1,077
• Number of rail travels: 312
• Number of bus travels: 1,139
• Accommodations: 371 people-night

Provinces with High Demand for Simorgh’s Services:

• Sistan and Baluchestan
• Kurdistan
• Khuzestan
• Fars
• Hormozgan

Ramona’s Performance in 2023:

• Ramona Institute (The Wise Guardian) is dedicated to social responsibility with a human-friendly approach, but it is not directly related to Ali Baba’s business.
• Total counseling duration in 2023: 120,000 minutes of free specialized counseling.
• Number of families: Over 740 families.
• Most recurring topics: How to communicate truth to stepchildren and parenting in challenging circumstances.
• Number of prevention cases of stepfamily dissolution: 12 cases with Ramona’s experts’ intervention.
• Number of conducted training courses: 13 courses.
• Number of participants in training courses: 613 individuals.
• Cities with high demand: Tehran, Mashhad, Shiraz, Isfahan, Bandar Abbas.
• Ramona’s counseling services have also been utilized by compatriots from countries like Australia, the UAE, the US, and Germany.

Aviation Industry (Domestic Flights):

• Lack of private sector investment in the aviation industry due to factors like price ceiling and price controls.
• Shortage of airline fleet capacity in the country and its decreasing trend over the past years.

Aviation Industry (International Flights):

• Dollar fluctuations, with the most significant surge experienced towards the end of the year.
• Prohibition of issuing tickets from outside Iran to Iran at a determined rate, leading to increased prices for these flights due to high costs in securing foreign currency.
• Unclear treatment of value-added tax (VAT) leading to some airlines collecting VAT while others do not.

Railway Industry:

• Implementation of price control policies by the government.
• Complete execution of plans to support railway industry investment.
• Inability to allocate special capacity for organizing tourist tours.
• Uncertainty in advance sales and the lack of long-term planning.
• Limited capacity of railway equipment (locomotives and passenger wagons) and failure to meet market demand.

Road Transport Industry (Bus):

• Worn-out fleet and the inability to refurbish it.
• Industry resistance and lack of inclination towards online market presence.
• Inability to monitor fleet performance to improve passenger services.
• Inconsistent pricing of intercity bus tickets compared to other routes.
• Non-flexible pricing based on time and weather conditions (lack of floating pricing).

Hotel Industry:

• High pricing execution for sales in online systems.
• Lack of supervision over charter operators’ pricing and uncontrolled price increases during peak seasons.
• Offline market presence and incomplete Manager channel systems for online implementation and communication.
• Discrepancy between the price (star rating) and services provided in many hotels.
• Flight monopolization during Nowruz to destinations like Kish and Mashhad, forcing passengers to book the flights along with specific hotels.
• Incomplete hotel reservation panels and lack of a comprehensive Reservation Management System.

Tourism Industry:

• Offline consumer behavior and resistance to change this approach.
• Lack of suitable infrastructure to attract domestic tourists to attractive regions of the country.
• Lower service quality due to extensive activities of intermediaries and selling agencies.
• Reduction in domestic flight capacity due to restrictions on aircraft parts imports and the price ceiling law, significantly impacting the provision and cost increase of domestic tours.

Destination:

At the end of each journey, our aspiration is to have the enthusiasm to embark on new journeys, exploring new horizons, experiencing new heights, and encountering worlds we have not yet explored.