_Let’s all go on a summer holiday… in Saudi

Tourism to form a key pillar of future growth

The tourism and hospitality sector is transforming and quietly being positioned as one of the key lynchpins of future economic growth in the Kingdom.

Indeed, we are tracking more than 310,000 hotel rooms, all due to be completed by 2030. For comparison, the UAE in 2023, which includes the emirate of Dubai, has 200,000 completed hotel rooms. The National Tourism Strategy, launched in 2019, is quickly gaining momentum. It is supported by plans to develop the world’s largest airport by passenger capacity, King Salman International Airport in Riyadh, which is forecast to welcome 185 million passengers by 2050. The airport, which has placed culture and heritage at the heart of its design, will house a new national flag carrier, RIA, which is expected to start operations in 2024.

With 100 million visitors expected to pass through the Kingdom’s gateways by 2030, the volume of real estate projects linked to the hospitality, tourism and entertainment sectors is unsurprisingly soaring. In fact, the Saudi General Entertainment Authority (GEA) has granted operating licenses to 24 theme parks in the Kingdom and issued over 4,000 permits for events and a further 3,370 licenses for live performances during 2022.

The rapid expansion of hospitality-linked offerings across the country is expected to play a critical role in boosting domestic tourism, which we forecast will form a key part of the future of the Kingdom’s hospitality landscape and is already a thriving industry.

Survey 2 reveals that most (65%) of Saudi nationals travel domestically between one to three times a month, with reasons varying from ‘short business trips’ (16%), to ‘entertainment/seasonal attractions’ (12%) and ‘religious purposes’ (16%).

While the majority (66%) travel with family members, traveling with friends (36%) and traveling solo (30%) are also rising.