Saudi Arabia To Launch Dream Of The Desert

13.02.2024 - 16:37 / forbes.com / Red Sea / Vita La-Dolce

There’s a new luxury train on the horizon that is aiming to enter the pantheon of classic trains and iconic rail journeys like the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express, the Royal Scotsman, and Africa’s Rovos Rail.

It’s called Dream of the Desert, and it promises to offer a luxurious and eye-opening journey through Saudi Arabia. It is also the first luxury train in the Middle East.

The 800-mile trip will begin in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia’s capital city, and travel northwest toward the border with Jordan. The route will pass through long stretches of scenic deserts and UNESCO World Heritage archeological sites. Highlights include the city of Ha’il, the Al-Qassim province, and the King Salman bin Abdulaziz Royal Natural Reserve in Al Jouf. The journey will conclude at Al-Qurayat, near the Jordanian border. Passengers will be able to book one or two-night trips.

The luxury train is a partnership between the state-owned railway company Saudi Arabia Railways (SAR) and the Italian hospitality company Arsenale Group that is said to be worth 200 million Saudi riyals ($53.32 million).

The Arsenale Group is an Italian luxury brand company. It has launched Soho House Roma, Hotel Santavenere Maratea, the new Orient Express La Dolce Vita train in Italy, and three luxury hotels that will debut in 2024: Oreint Express La Minerva, Rome; Oreinet Express Palazzo Dona Giovannelli Venice; and Abbazia di Spinetto in Tuscany. It refers to Dream of the Desert as “luxury train cruising.”

Dream of the Desert will have 40 cars and will carry 82 passengers, with a fine dining restaurant and a lounge bar, among other amenities. Arsenale says that the design is inspired by “Saudi style and tradition” and that the trains will be “fully-customized” and are already under construction. The train is tentatively scheduled to finish production in the summer of 2025 and begin running by the end of 2025.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia country was long sealed off from Western visitors and only began to welcome international tourists in 2019. It has already spent many billions in the effort to attract visitors, most notably at NEOM, a new urban development area that’s to be built from the ground up in northwestern Tabuk Province, north of the Red Sea, east of Egypt, and across the Gulf of Aqaba. Developments include the island of Sindalah in the Red Sea and Trojena, a ski resort in the NEOM mountains. The country’s stated goal is to invest more than $800 billion into tourism development in the next decade, hoping to welcome an astonishing 70 million international tourists a year by 2030.

Dream of the Desert is Sudi Arabia’s reach for not only the luxury train travel market but also taps into the current travel trends of experiential travel, cultural