Saudi tourism heats up

SAUDI Arabia has issued more than 3,500 tourism investment licenses since publishing its Vision 2030 blueprint last year, with the Middle Eastern nation on track to have visitors account for 10% of its national GDP by 2030.

The country’s Acting Deputy Minister for Investment Promotion, Saad Al-Shahrani, told Arab News that Saudi Arabia would welcome more than 100 million tourists by 2030, with numbers to be driven largely by heavy investments in drawcards such as ALULA, the US$500 billion Red Sean mega city project NEOM, the mountainous tourist centre of Al Souda and the historical city of Diriyah Gate.

To cater for the sharp anticipated upswing in travellers, Al-Shahran also indicated the Kingdom’s flag carrier SAUDIA will look to add 94 new destinations to its network in order to hit its key 2030 tourism objective.

Saudi Arabia is now the world’s largest investor in tourism, pumping US$810 billion into planned culture, leisure and entertainment projects over the next decade alone.

Another major pillar of its strategy is driving traveller interest through major sporting events, recently courting plenty of controversy in the golf world by forming a breakaway golf league to rival the PGA.

But the negative headlines have not stopped Saudi Arabia from pushing ahead with landing major sports events, with new ambassador Lionel Messi promoting a range of upcoming tournaments, such as the Italian Super Cup, the Spanish Super Cup, and the Formula 1 Grand Prix, with the country over the weekend submitting a bid to host the 2029 Asian Winter Games at NEOM, a city that’ll attract 700k tourists annually when complete.