Tourist visas, lenient dress codes, transformation plans and multi-billion dollar entertainment projects. Let me start with the tourist visas first.
On Friday, Saudi announced that it will offer e-visas as well as visas-on-arrival to visitors from these 49 countries.
Prior to this, the only international visitors to the kingdom were expatriate workers, people with business visas and hajj pilgrims.
The Kingdom will also relax its strict dress requirement for female visitors, exempting them from wearing an Abaya in public places and permitting (I’ve tried saying it without rolling my eyes) them to travel without a male companion.
If you are wondering what all these tourists are actually going to do in the Kingdom, then don’t you worry, child… Saudi’s got a plan for you.
There is a tourism transformation plan worth wait-for-it $27 bn in the works at the moment.
Agreements signed by Saudi Arabia’s General Investment Authority include one worth 37.5 billion Saudi Riyals with Triple 5 that plans to develop a series of mixed-use tourism, hospitality and entertainment destinations.
Another with Majid Al Futtaim worth 20 billion Saudi Riyals for a mixed-use shopping and entertainment destination which will create 12,000 jobs and feature the region’s largest indoor ski slope and snow park.
There’s also the agreements signed with Oyo Rooms (SR4 billion), a 1.5 billion riyal joint venture with Nenking Group/Ajlan Brothers to build a landmark lifestyle destination in Riyadh, and a deal with FTG Development to build a hotel, waterpark and retail development in Qiddiya; a 1,500 room hotel in NEOM City and a hotel situated between Jeddah and Makkah.
The aim is for tourism to contribute up to 10 percent towards Saudi Arabia’s GDP by 2030, compared to just 3 percent today.
Despite all of this these insane announcements and plans, will this be possible though?
The Kingdom still forbids alcohol and has a strict social code and is seen by many as a hard sell for tourists.
MBSs liberalisation drive that has brought new cinemas, mixed-gender concerts and sporting extravaganzas to Saudi Arabia, but their human rights record hasn’t exactly been ideal – to say the least.
The gruesome murder last year of critic Jamal Khashoggi and a crackdown on female activists hasn’t been received well by international communities. Fears of a regional conflict after the September 14 attacks on state oil giant Aramco may also dampen the kingdom’s appeal.
100 million annual visits, 1 billion new jobs, 10% GDP contribution all through this massive tourism drive may be a tad too ambitious, but if they keep striving towards sustainable development and I am talking both ecological and social sustainability where we hope and pray there isn’t another case of a murdered journalist, human rights violations, drone attacks and air strikes, forced labour issues, delayed and denied criminal justice, and restricted association, expression and belief – then perhaps Saudi Arabia could get on an international travellers bucket list within the next decade.
(Source: Arabianbusiness.com YouTube channel)
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