Saudi Arabia “will continue with its current laws” on alcohol and does not need to change these regulations to boost its already thriving tourism sector, Princess Haifa Al Saud, the Assistant Minister for Tourism said at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland.
During a panel discussion at WEF 2022, Princess Haifa was asked about the possibility of alcohol being served at the kingdom’s upcoming NEOM gigaproject.
“Saudi Arabia has been very transparent on where it stands on everything,” Princess Haifa responded. “The short answer is that we are going to continue with our current laws.”
The Assistant Minister for Tourism’s comments at the World Economic Forum echo a previous statement made by an official from Saudi’s Public Investment Fund.
The state-run Saudi Press Agency reported the unnamed Public Investment Fund official stating that NEOM – despite being designated as a special economic zone – would fall under that the sovereignty and regulations of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and as such, would be subject to all rules that are applied to any other part of the kingdom.
In line with the Sharia law followed in the kingdom, Saudi Arabia still strictly prohibits the manufacture, sale, possession, and consumption of alcohol. Consuming, buying, selling, or trading alcohol in the kingdom is a punishable offense.
Princess Haifa added: “We have been doing very well. We have been outperforming globally when it comes to tourism with what we have to offer today. There’s a lot to go around without introducing alcohol.”
The 2021 World Economic Forum (WEF) Travel and Tourism Development Index, which was revealed at the WEF 2022 forum earlier this week, showed that Saudi Arabia has moved up 10 places to the 33rd spot on the index.
The independent index benchmarks 117 countries on 17 pillars crucial to the development and resilience of their travel and tourism industries.
Saudi Arabia moved up from 43rd in 2019 to 33rd in 2021, the second-largest rise in rankings, as a result of improvements across almost all indicators.
The kingdom’s higher score was achieved by improvements in 12 out of the 17 KPIs, including an improvement from 27th to 10th for business environment; an improvement from 47th to 40th for tourism services; and a best in world ranking for managing demand pressure and impact.
Moreover, this rise in tourism coupled with increased oil output is expected to lift the Saudi economy by 7 percent in 2022, outpacing other GCC nations, according to a World Bank report.
The performance of Saudi Arabia hotels in the first quarter of this year are at similar levels to those in 2019, before the pandemic hit, according to new data from Colliers.
The Riyadh Seasons entertainment festival welcomed more than 15 million visitors over the five-month event which ended in March 2022.
Hotel occupancy was up more than 100 percent in Q1 of 2022 compared to the same quarter of 2019.
Follow us on
