Saudi Arabia plans shopping street in Diriyah inspired by world-famous Champs Elysees
▶ The King Salman Boulevard, which will open next year, will be same length and width as French avenue
Diriyah Company, the developer turning the historic Saudi city into a vast tourism project, plans to build its own version of France’s Champs Elysees as it looks to launch a number of projects next year.
The King Salman Boulevard – the same length and width as the Parisian shopping street – will be unveiled alongside a new opera house, contemporary art museum, mosque, convention centre and performance arena in December 2024.
The projects were announced by Jerry Inzerillo, chief executive of Diriyah Company, at the Wadi Safar experience centre, west of Diriyah.
“Every year we will open, ground-break and announce assets until the fabulous world Expo in 2030,” he said, referring to Riyadh winning the bid to host the world’s fair.
Diriyah, home to the Unesco World Heritage Site of AtTuraif, is the birthplace of the kingdom and the ancestral home of Al Saud royal family.
The first Saudi state was established on the site in 1727.
The $63.2 billion project spanning 14 square kilometres is set to house 42 hotels, more than 100 restaurants and about 30,000 homes by 2030.
The Diriyah Company, which is owned by the Public Investment Fund, will transform the historic site into a space for culture, heritage and tourism.
Polo and golf in the desert
During a two-day event that began on Wednesday, the company revealed the first phase of its new 27-hole championship golf course designed by Australia’s former major winner Greg Norman.
At the planned Royal Diriyah Golf Club in Wadi Safar, the driving range and the completed first nine holes of the course were on display during the Bashayer 2023 event.
This is the first of an annual series of events intended to unveil new developments and initiatives in Diriyah and highlight the project’s progress.
“We have all been blown away by the transition in Saudi Arabia in such a short period of time, and I have seen that just in golf alone,” Norman said.
From up to 400,000 people who play golf in the kingdom, to plans for growing tourism, there is a “massive opportunity” to attract visitors, he said.
The company also showcased the first phase of its Royal Diriyah Equestrian and Polo Club, which will host global events once completed. The club will hold 180 horses in the stables and will be home to two polo fields. A VIP lounge, pro shop, restaurant and polo lessons will be available for members.
Argentine polo player Nacho Figueras opened the site with a friendly game on Wednesday.
Saudi Arabia is looking for other ways to bring equestrian events to the kingdom after hosting the Richard Mille AlUla Desert Polo – the only modern polo tournament to be staged in a desert environment.
“The Arab world has a real knowledge and passion for horses. There is a dream of building a sport in a place where the locals are horsemen and that is very important,” Figueras told The National on the sidelines of the event. “I am going to be back in a month to play polo in AlUla again … and there is a few more projects around the kingdom with polo and I really want to be a part of it and I feel the energy here.”
After the “huge success” of polo tournaments in AlUla, Figueras said he had a “lot of faith that the same will happen” in Diriyah.
“There are eight million people in Riyadh already and I believe this is going to be a very successful venture,” he said.
Luxury homes
The Diriyah Company also said it ceremonially “broke ground” on three of its planned 42 hotels – the Aman, the Oberoi and Six Senses at Wadi Safar.
Diriyah this year hosted the planting of six million trees, the creation of parks and the building of 3,000 out of 40,000 subterranean parking spaces with the “highest level” of sustainability, Mr Inzerillo said.
Najdi-inspired luxury homes also went on the market this year and sold quickly, he said.
“We have already put out our first residences on sale, and they were a little bit on the high market, and we have stopped the sales because they were going too quickly. We had to hold a few for certain people that needed to have one, who may have not seen the initial announcement,” he said.
Saudi Arabia will hit its target of 100 million annual domestic and international visitors in a few days, Tourism Minister Ahmed Al Khateeb said at the Bashayer event.
“We had committed to reach 100 million tourists by 2030 as part of our national tourism strategy, with 70 million local and 25 million to 30 million international, and I would like to announce that we will hit 100 million next week,” he said.
By the end of last week, the kingdom had recorded 25 million international arrivals, said Mr Al Khateeb. That is up from 16.5 million last year. Saudi Arabia has raised its 2030 target for tourist trips – a figure that includes both domestic and international travellers – to 150 million, from 100 million, he said.
The kingdom is investing in vast tourism projects in Riyadh, such as Diriyah and Qiddiyah, because “we believe that people who travel to any country tend to stay in one city”, he said.
Out of the target of 150 million visitors, about 60 per cent are expected to stay in Riyadh, Mr Al Khateeb said.
Global tourism’s ‘new frontier’
Six Senses chief executive Neil Jacobs is “very bullish” on the prospects for business in Saudi Arabia amid efforts to diversify its economy and boost non-oil sectors, but acknowledged it would not happen overnight.
“There is so much product being built – so many hotels, towns, employee housing. It is unprecedented what is being created in Saudi Arabia,” Mr Jacobs said.
Asked how confident he was in filling these hotels once they open, he said: “It will take some time. There is only so much domestic and
Every time we come to this destination, we see the change and the impact it is having. It is moving very fast
ANNA NASH
Aman hotel’s chief commercial officer
regional tourism. International markets need to come. That interest internationally is there and it is going to come quicker than we originally thought a few years ago because the culture is so interesting. It is new frontiers, from a global tourism perspective.”
Six Senses is planning a 70room hotel in Wadi Safar on a hill overlooking the golf course, he said. It has already opened the Six Senses Southern Dunes, a desert resort in the kingdom’s Red Sea tourism project. Its property in Amala is next to open within two years. Six Senses AlUla is set to open in 2027.
Aman hotel’s chief commercial officer Anna Nash also said she had “a lot of confidence” in the Saudi market.
“Every time we come to this destination, we see the change and the impact it is having. It is moving very fast. We have a close relationship with the teams at the developers and we have every confidence,” she told The National.
Aman Wadi Safar will feature 78 rooms and 34 branded residences that will open in 2026, she said. Two Aman properties and one Janu hotel will open in AlUla, in addition to Aman Wadi Safar and Janu Diriyah.