The Middle East and Africa (MEA) markets are characterized by rapid growth, high owner influence, diverse operator models, and a much younger hotel infrastructure, says Ralph Melis, the co-founder and chief operating officer (COO) of ExploreTECH. Excerpts from the interview.
How did ExploreTECH come into being? What gap did you observe in the market that existing players weren’t addressing?
ExploreTECH was born from a simple observation: hoteliers were making technology decisions with incomplete information, scattered sources, and no neutral place to compare vendors. Existing players focused on lead generation or editorial content—not true discovery, transparency, or structured knowledge. We saw a knowledge gap, an integration gap, and a trust gap. ExploreTECH was designed to solve all three by becoming the region’s first structured, multilingual, category-driven platform with verified data, expert guidance, and now an AI-native discovery layer.
Antoine Medawar has described ExploreTech as a “Blue Ocean marketplace.” What makes the Middle East particularly suitable for this approach?
The Middle East is unique because its hotel landscape is expanding faster than anywhere else globally, but its technology knowledge infrastructure hasn’t kept pace. Owners, operators, and asset managers want innovation but lack centralized, unbiased guidance. There is no legacy marketplace model here, no entrenched incumbents—which creates a true Blue Ocean. This region is open to new platforms, new operating models, and rapid digital adoption, which makes it perfect for building a category-defining ecosystem.
How has the hospitality technology knowledge gap evolved in the MENA region? What are the most critical knowledge deficits you’re addressing?
The gap has shifted from “awareness” to “understanding.” Hoteliers know tech exists — but they struggle to evaluate compatibility, ROI, integration complexity, and what truly matters for their business model. Our role is to simplify discovery, standardize comparisons, present verified product data, and translate global best practices into a regional context. The biggest deficits today are around integrations, system interoperability, AI readiness, and understanding buyer–vendor fit.
Is the challenge in the Gulf primarily about access to technology, understanding which technology to adopt, or something else?
The challenge is not access anymore — global vendors are here. The issue is clarity: what to choose, how solutions fit together, and how to avoid costly mistakes. Decision-makers want structured knowledge and a trusted filter. MEA is a market where the decision-making cycle is fast but risk-averse. ExploreTECH helps bridge this by bringing transparency, regional relevance, and a guided path from search to evaluation to implementation.
ExploreTECH is unique in offering both Arabic and English interfaces. How significant is language in knowledge transfer within hospitality technology? Does Arabic-language content change adoption patterns? How is AI helping in this bilingual venture?
Language is a major barrier in the region. Many stakeholders — especially owners, finance teams, HR, and government entities — prefer Arabic when learning about technology or evaluating vendors. Once we introduced Arabic product profiles, we saw adoption rise across Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Kuwait, and Oman because language removes hesitation, speeds internal buy-in, and brings non-technical teams into the decision-making process.
To ensure accuracy and cultural precision, we partnered with Tarjama.com, one of the region’s leading localization specialists. Their expertise ensures that complex technical content, feature definitions, and product nuances are translated contextually — not literally. Combined with our AI layer, which maintains bilingual consistency at scale, we’re now able to deliver high-quality Arabic and English (with more languages coming soon) product knowledge that the market can trust, accelerating adoption across the MEA hospitality sector.
Your tiered subscription model allows small and large vendors to participate. How are you balancing the platform to ensure smaller, innovative tech startups can compete with established global brands for attention?
We intentionally designed a tiered model that removes financial barriers. A startup can publish its product, appear in comparisons, and be discovered next to the biggest global brands. Our structured categories, feature-level taxonomy, and “verified” layers reward clarity and quality, not marketing budgets. The more complete and transparent a vendor’s profile, the more visibility they gain—which levels the playing field and promotes innovation.
You launched ExploreTECH PRO, the first AI assistant for hospitality tech discovery. How does AI change the knowledge intermediation role? What can AI do that human advisors cannot, or what can humans do that AI can never accomplish?
AI allows us to scale personalized guidance in a way humans simply cannot. ExploreTECH PRO processes more than 130,000 structured hospitality-technology data points—product features, integrations, use cases, category logic, and vendor metadata—and is growing. It analyzes this entire knowledge graph in seconds and tailors answers to a hotel’s exact tech stack, brand profile, size, and region.
But the real shift is that AI becomes the interface. Users no longer need technical knowledge or experience navigating complex systems. They simply prompt their way forward—asking natural-language questions and receiving accurate comparisons, recommendations, and insights instantly.
This transforms technology discovery from a manual research exercise into an intelligent conversation. And while AI delivers the speed, structure, and analytical depth, human advisors still provide context, experience, and industry intuition. Together, they redefine what “tech advisory” means — making it accessible, unbiased, and available to every hotel, not just those who can afford consultants.
What makes the MEA hospitality market structurally different from Western markets in terms of technology adoption and knowledge economy development?
MEA markets are characterized by rapid growth, high owner influence, diverse operator models, and a much younger hotel infrastructure. Many hotels are still choosing foundational systems—PMS, CRS, CRM, POS—for the first time or replacing outdated legacy setups. Decision-makers look for scalable cloud solutions but need trusted guidance. Unlike the West, where technology is an optimization layer, in MEA, it’s still part of building the operational core.
You’ve established operations in Saudi Arabia. How does Saudi Vision 2030 and the kingdom’s massive hospitality expansion affect technology adoption patterns? Are new mega-projects more or less sophisticated technology adopters?
Saudi Arabia is accelerating hospitality development at a scale that demands sophisticated, future-ready infrastructure. Vision 2030 projects like NEOM, Red Sea Global, and Diriyah are not just hotel developments—they are fully integrated smart destinations.
Mega-projects tend to be more sophisticated because they start with a clean slate. They design technology-first operations, adopt cloud-native systems, and prioritize interoperability and data governance from day one. This is shaping the entire region by raising expectations and accelerating demand for best-in-class technology.
(This interview was originally published in the special Knowledge Economy print issue of Trends in Jan 2026)