Tourism in Saudi Arabia sets for huge breakthrough

Saudi Arabia plans to open around 12,000 hotel rooms in 2022, marking a 6 per cent growth rate, Tourism Minister Ahmed al-Khateeb told Al Arabiya on October 25.

Acknowledging the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the tourism and travel sector worldwide, al-Khateeb said that the Kingdom has since 2021 witnessed a revival of the sector, Al Arabiya reports. He was speaking on the sidelines of the Future Investment Initiative in Riyadh.

Al-Khateeb also voiced the importance of e-visas and developing routes to link the Kingdom to various destinations across the world to further increase and ease accessibility to tourists, adding that direct flights are one of the factors which travellers take into consideration when making travel plans.

In July, Saudi Arabia topped the list of G20 countries for tourism arrivals during a busy summer spell of travel to the country, with figures showing more than double the number of visitors travelling to the Kingdom year-on-year.

According to the latest UNWTO World Tourism Barometer, revealed during a UNWTO meeting in Bali, Indonesia, the number of tourists heading to Saudi Arabia rose by 121 per cent in July 2022 compared to July last year, largely in part to around one million pilgrims who headed to the Kingdom to perform the annual Hajj.