Saudi Arabia eyes 25m tourists this year

Saudi Arabia aims to receive 25 million foreign tourists in 2023 as part of efforts to diversify the kingdom’s economy and bolster its tourism industry, a senior government official has said.

Saudi Minister of Tourism Ahmad Al Khatib added that the kingdom is expected to hold the world’s 17th rank in terms of tourist attraction, having drawn 16.5 million tourists last year, an increase of 94 per cent compared to the pre-epidemic time.

The overall tourism spending last year amounted to SR185 billion, a 93 per cent increase against 2021, the official added in a monthly online meeting on tourism performance.

The kingdom, he added, has exceeded the 2019 figures to emerge as the leading country in registering record numbers among the Group of 20 (G20) countries.

Job opportunities

According to Al Khatib, the number of jobs provided by the tourism sector in Saudi Arabia reached 880,000 in 2022, up 15 per cent against the previous year while female Saudi workers accounted for 44 per cent of the overall workforce in the sector.

“The ministry is seeking to provide 1 million jobs in different activities of the tourism sector, a matter that requires establishing training institutes, building and developing training programmes and services in hospitality and tourism,” he added. Last month, Al Khatib disclosed that Saudi Arabia plans to build more than 700,000 hotel rooms by 2030 and that his ministry aims to develop the sector to raise its contribution to reach 10 per cent of the kingdom’s gross domestic product (GDP) by 2030.