5 Cruises That Will Take You To Saudi Arabia in 2023 and 2024

By now, flynas has taken delivery of 18 aircraft out of 19 new A320neo aircraft scheduled for delivery in 2023, within an order of purchasing 120 aircraft from Airbus for a total amount exceeding 32 billion riyals, within a stated plan to increase the new aircraft orders to 250 aircraft.

KSA-based and international falconers will compete for record total prize pot of SAR 60m ($16m) at AlUla’s Mughayra Heritage Sports Village from December 28th to January 5th.

Fleet upscaled by 35%, seat capacity up 22%. 19 new aircraft delivered during 2023.

Japan will head to the AFC Asian Cup Qatar 2023™ as the top ranked Asian side. The four-time AFC Asian Cup winners maintained their 17th spot in the latest FIFA World Ranking issued last Thursday.

As part of its goal to conserve and celebrate traditional heritage sports that have deep roots in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the region, and further afield, the Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU) will host the first-ever AlUla Falcon Cup. The landmark sporting event, taking place at AlUla’s Mughayra Heritage Sports Village from December 28th to January 5th, will promote the rich history, carefully practiced skills, and important traditions of falconry to a global audience of visiting falconers and tourists, as well as members of the AlUla community.

AROYA Cruises, the new Arabian cruise line operated by Cruise Saudi, has revealed its new mystery cruise ship, the first in its fleet.

Saudi Arabia has bold ambitions to open to tourists and its airline industry is a big part of the plan. Riyadh Air, a new carrier established with support of the Public Investment Fund, ordered a large number of Boeing 787 aircraft in 2023 with the aim to start operations in 2025.

Tourism leaders from around the world will join together in Saudi Arabia’s capital city, Riyadh, for 2023’s United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) World Tourism Day on September 27 and 28. Global tourism ministers and others in the industry will participate in events to connect and collaborate. The location of this year’s event shows how far tourism has come in the few short years since Saudi Arabia opened to tourists in 2019.

NEOM is central to Saudi Arabia’s push to encourage tourism and emerge as one of the world’s leading vacation destinations. Al’Ula and mega-projects inside of NEOM such as The Line and a new island destination called Sindalah have been the biggest locations to make headlines lately, but there are other moving pieces equally worthy of getting excited about. Take, for example, Leyja, a mountainous region within NEOM slated to be developed as a major tourism hub with three new futuristic hotels built right into the mountains.

At first, the idea of building an entire city in the shape of a straight line might sound puzzling. After all, wouldn’t it take that much longer to get from one end to the other? Would the traffic going from end to end be terrible? It turns out that the straight line model is actually based on efficiency of transportation, and when done right, it can be an incredible advantage to other layouts. That’s the goal with “The Line,” Saudi Arabia’s trillion-dollar futuristic city that’s an ambitious feat of engineering. The planned 105-mile long city in NEOM, in the northwest section of the country, is slated to cut across the desert in a straight line, hold nine million people, and serve as an almost utopian example of what cities could look like.

Since opening to tourists in 2019, Saudi Arabia has quickly become a world leader in travel. The country was elected as the Chair of the United Nations World Tourism Organization in 2023, and Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Tourism aims to welcome 100 million tourist visits by 2023. Such rapid growth takes massive investment — something Saudi Arabia has already proven to be more than willing to do successfully. With increased cruises bringing passengers to Saudi Arabia and a manageable visa application process, it’s hard to imagine another country more poised to dominate the global tourism market in upcoming years.

In 2019, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia officially opened its doors to international travelers, issuing tourist visas for the first time in history. Previously, only those traveling to Saudi Arabia for work or Muslim pilgrims were permitted to enter the country. Today, citizens of 57 nations, including the United States, can obtain an eVisa to travel to Saudi Arabia — and the application process is simple, fast, and relatively cheap.