Saudi Arabia’s tourism targets may be ambitious, but they are also realistic, stressed Mahmoud Abdulhadi, deputy minister, Investment Attraction, Ministry of Tourism of Saudi Arabia.
The kingdom’s strategy, which will forge a key part in Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s Vision 2030, aims for tourism to be the second largest contributor to GDP after oil and gas by 2030 – increasing to 10 percent from 3.6 percent today.
Two further important pillars include to become a top five destination globally with 100 million annual visits to the kingdom; and to provide one million extra jobs in the tourism sector.
Abdulhadi said: “It’s not beyond reach and given the size of the kingdom, we are the size of Europe, we are eight destinations and we need to view it in that light. It’s not simply a number that we’re looking to hit for one destination. When you think about it, it’s more than eight destinations, it’s probably 13 if you include the giga-projects.”
Abdulhadi was referring to the $500 billion-plus, which is being spent on massive projects such as the Red Sea Development, Qiddiya, Diriyah, AlUla and Neom, which are set to revolutionise the kingdom’s tourism offering to the national and international audience.
He added: “The same goes for the other targets. If we’re successful, and we will be, in developing all of these destinations, employment will come; when employment comes, the spend comes; when the spend comes, GDP contribution goes up.”
Saudi has introduced a raft of reforms designed to open itself up to the global community, including a stipulation that all international companies looking to win government contracts in the kingdom must have their regional headquarters in Riyadh by 2024 – a move which Abdulhadi believed would see huge benefits for the capital’s business travel sector. While the e-visa can see tourist visas issued to travellers within five minutes.
“That shows how serious we are about this,” said Abdulhadi, who added that the kingdom was looking to create 400,000 additional hotel room keys by 2030.
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Mahmoud Abdulhadi, deputy minister, Investment Attraction, Ministry of Tourism of Saudi Arabia.
And he said, the entire sector presents a huge “opportunity” for the private sector.
He said: “Ultimately speaking, when we’re done with this journey and when we have an ecosystem that is set up, the private sector has to be the core of our industry, from an operating perspective, from an investing perspective, going forward.
“All of this is being encouraged and all of what we’re doing today, from attracting investment, reforming regulation, ease of doing business, understanding the cost of doing business, removing all the barriers, is for that ultimate goal.”
Previously released by the Minister of Investment of Saudi Arabia (MISA) revealed that, in the year-to-date, roughly $5bn has been invested into the kingdom’s tourism sector, across the board, from hospitality investment, activities within the destinations themselves, destination management companies etc.
Abdulhadi said: “There is a lot of domestic investment but we’re also seeing interest from US, European and Asian investors as well, so it is very broad and, for us, we’re very keen on promoting the Saudi investor into the sector, but we’re also very keen on getting the international investment to come in, because we know that that mix will ultimately help the market.”
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