Spending on domestic tourism inside Saudi Arabia increased by 13.5 percent last year to about SAR 84.5bn ($22bn) from 2010, Al Hayat reported citing a report by the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities.
The number of visitors who travelled within the kingdom reached 24 million last year, according to the Saudi owned newspaper. Saudi Arabia, which has about 951 licensed hotels, recorded occupancy rates of 63 percent in 2011 compared with 59.2 percent the year before, the newspaper reported, citing the report.
Jobs in the tourism industry increased 6.5 percent to 670,000 last year. Tourism accounts for about 3.1 percent of gross domestic product and for about 7.2 percent in the kingdom’s non-oil sector.
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