Uber CEO and Other Business Chiefs Reconsider Ties to Saudi Arabia
Skift Take
This story is yet more fodder supporting one of Skift's megatrends for 2018, which was that travel brands no longer get political at their own risk — they avoid politics at their own risk, given consumer expectations.
Global business leaders are reassessing their ties with Saudi Arabia, stoking pressure on the Gulf kingdom to explain what happened to a dissident writer who disappeared after visiting its consulate in Istanbul.
British billionaire Richard Branson on Friday suspended business links with Saudi Arabia, and Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said he might not attend a major investment conference in the country this month amid reports that Jamal Khashoggi may have been killed at the Saudi consulate in Turkey's capital.
"What has reportedly happened in Turkey around the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, if proved true, would clearly change the ability of any of us in the West to do business with the Saudi government," Branson said in a statement.
Branson, founder o
