Beyond black gold

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Mövenpick Resort Al Nawras, Jeddah, is located on a private island in the Red Sea.

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Raddisson SAS Jeddah, part of Rezidor's expanding portfolio of properties in Saudi Arabia.

The Kingdom is looking to counter its reliance on the oil market by developing its meeting and conference offering.

Saudi Arabia is not renowned for being the destination of choice for meetings, incentives and events in the Middle East.

The Kingdom's staple business is religious tourism and preconceptions remain that the country is hard to access and that options when there are limited - particularly for incentives.

Nevertheless, Saudi Arabian officials are viewing tourism as a major source of hard currency and a way of diversifying its oil dependant economy.

Vast sums are being spent on developing the infrastructure of the country and world-class airlines such as Emirates Airline, Etihad Airways and Qatar Airways have increased the number of flights to and from Saudi Arabia.

There have also been attempts to improve access with a number of inbound tour operators licensed to issue visas.

Furthermore, theme parks and other tourist attractions are being developed on a massive scale with the aim of attracting leisure and incentive tourism.

As a result, Saudi Arabia's efforts to compete with its Middle Eastern neighbours in attracting its share of tourism are paying dividends.

According to Euromonitor International, a global market research company, KSA inbound tourism is expected to rise by 37% to reach more than 13 billion visitors by 2011.

With this in mind, many high-end international hotel chains have seen the potential in the Kingdom, many slating properties for the coming years.

Mövenpick Hotels and Resorts is one of them.

"Saudi Arabia is an important destination for us not only because of the massive investment in infrastructure, but, more importantly, the vision of the government to develop the tourism product and with it the meetings and incentive product," says general and regional manager Anwar Al Madinah Mövenpick, Madinah and Mövenpick Hotel & Residence Hajar Tower, Makkah, Adel Bibars.

The increasing demand for corporate and government conferences, particularly in Riyadh, has created a need for more five-star properties and Bibars says the higher spend of the business traveller means demand for luxury accommodation will remain high.

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