Jenny Phenix was ready to spend the rest of her life on a cruise ship.
11.09.2024 - 22:34 / skift.com / Josh Corder
Saudis are exploring their own country in bigger numbers and foreigners are bringing the cash. That’s the takeaway from a report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on the state of the Saudi economy.
“The surge of visitors has been mostly domestic-driven while the surge in visitors’ spending was mostly inbound-driven (i.e., international arrivals),” said the IMF report.
Saudi reported 109 million visitors in 2023, beating its initial target of 100 million visitors by 2030 – a goal it has since lifted to 150 million.
Domestic tourists accounted for 74.9% of visits last year, or 81.9 million people. The Saudi government doesn’t share how they measure a domestic tourist, but Skift has been told by the Saudi Tourism Authority it partly involves tracking mobile phone signals to see when people cross land borders in the country.
International tourists spent 141.2 billion Saudi Riyals (about $37.6 billion) last year compared to 114.4 billion Saudi Riyals (about $30.5 billion) by domestic travelers.
By 2030, the goal is for 70 million foreign tourists. ‘Giga-projects’ such as Neom and The Red Sea are being built with Western tastes in mind, with a string of luxury hotels and restaurants. However, the projects themselves are unlikely to make a big contribution to overall visitor targets due to the small size of the hotels.
The estimates of the World Travel & Tourism Council indicate that Saudi Arabia’s tourism sector’s overall (direct and indirect) contribution to GDP reached 11.5% in 2023 — and is expected to increase to 16% by 2034.
There was a substantial increase in tourism spending post-Covid, which was primarily driven by international travelers visiting friends and relatives — while Saudi nationals’ leisure spending abroad experienced a significant decline of 51% from 2019 to 2023.
For international travelers, religious tourism is still the main purpose of a visit, accounting for 11.46 million of the 27.42 international visits last year. Visiting friends and family was almost tied with leisure at 6.2 and 6.25 million visitors, respectively.
For domestic tourists last year, leisure was the main purpose of travel for 35 million people.
Saudi Arabia says its “real business” will come from mass-market travel, not ultra-luxury stays.
Jenny Phenix was ready to spend the rest of her life on a cruise ship.
An Allegiant Air passenger says she and her son were wrongly removed from a flight because a cabin crew member didn't want to miss out on snack commissions.
Travel blogger Lee Abbamonte has seen more of the US than most people do in a lifetime.
You can listen to our podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify each week. Follow this link if you're listening on Apple News.
Travellers, including British tourists post-Brexit, will soon face a new hurdle when visiting Europe.
Monet Hambrick likes to say, "If kids live there, kids can visit."
It’s February 2020 and Ahmed Al Khateeb was just been named the first-ever minister of tourism for Saudi Arabia. He didn’t know it yet, but there was a global pandemic just weeks away. It was horrible timing, but Al Khateeb has nevertheless created one of the world’s fastest-growing tourism sectors.
Heritage Group chairman Manfredi Lefebvre d’Ovidio has spent decades focused on the top end of luxury travel, from ultra-expensive cruises, to private jet tours, to off-the-beaten-track safari tours for the rich.
In Al-Balad, the historic center of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, the chirping of sparrows mingles with the call to prayer from the 800-year-old minaret of the Al-Shafi'i mosque, as it has for centuries. But change is very much afoot. Workers in hard hats and high-visibility vests are busy at work on the coral stone buildings, cordoned off by aesthetically pleasing green temporary fences. A growing community of Saudi artists is moving into these narrow lanes, bringing modern energy to the UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Local Dubai hotel group FIVE reported financial results Monday that show the company has continued to benefit from the emirate’s robust tourism sector, but also that it will need to look elsewhere for growth.
Virgin Atlantic is launching a major new route from Heathrow to Saudi Arabia next March and it is finding it needs to balance some of its policies to conform to local customs.
The travel booking landscape is rapidly transforming, with direct bookings on the rise and reshaping the competition. What’s driving this shift? Skift Research explores these pivotal changes in our new report: “Direct Bookings vs. OTAs: Analyzing the Shift in U.S. Travel Booking Trends.”