Why Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea coast could be the next big luxury tourism destination

The tone for this year’s Riyadh Season has been set following the huge success of the much-publicised and highly charged London face-off between Tyson Fury, the current WBC Heavyweight champion, and unbeaten MMA champion, Francis Ngannou.

Details of the speaker lineup have been revealed for this year’s World Tourism Day (WTD), to be held in Riyadh from 27th – 28th September. With more than 500 government officials, industry leaders and experts from across 120 countries set to descend on Riyadh for the event, the level of attendance demonstrates the significance of WTD 2023 in charting the future of the global tourism sector’s growth.

The 25th Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) is scheduled for October 16-20 this year in Samarkand. For the first time in history, Uzbekistan will host this important biennial gathering of member states and affiliate members of UNWTO.

The Luxury Collection NEOM, located in Saudi Arabia’s Sindalah Island, put out a call for mixologists and bartenders ahead of its opening next year – though the hotel’s operator, Marriott, says the job listings were a mistake and being removed.

The Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, referred to as “MBS” by the media, won’t slow down his spending to reshape his kingdom and boost tourism. His immense projects have been met with scrutiny overseas, but in the future, he wants to develop nearly 600 islands along the coast, according to his interview on Wednesday with Fox News, his first fully in English.

How often do you think about the Roman Empire? If you are one of the many people who reportedly thinks about it all the time—the aqueducts, the colosseums, the gladiators, the togas—then la Maison Carrée (the Square House) in the center of Nîmes should be placed firmly on your next travel itinerary. It was just awarded a place on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Stargazing is a time-honored tradition that has been an integral part of history in Saudi Arabia for millennia. The night sky was a crucial navigational tool in the vast and often featureless stretches of Saudi’s desert. Just as sailors use stars for navigation at sea, Bedouins relied on them to find their way across the sand. Those traditions are still honored today, and if you’re interested in learning more about the culture while enjoying the outdoors and vast star-studded sky, there are few locations in the country that can rival the natural beauty and vastness of AlUla.

UNESCO has once again spared Venice from its list of world heritage sites in danger, declining to add the famous Italian city after initially drawing the ire of the group due to the effects of climate change and over-tourism. 

Saudia will become the first airline to operate in and out of the Red Sea International airport (RSI). This is after the airline signed an MoU with the Red Sea Global (RSG) and daa International.

The 37th America’s Cup sailing race will take place in the year 2024 in Barcelona, Spain. However, the first of three preliminary regattas before that event has kicked off in Vilanova i la Geltrú, a coastal city some 30 coastal miles [50 kilometers] south of Barcelona. Out of six racing teams from New Zealand, the U.S., U.K, Switzerland, Italy and France, the French Orient Express team cooly breezed into a win on the first competitive event on a hot 85 degree [29 Celsius] Saturday mid-afternoon.

A collection of tombs from Korea’s ancient Gaya confederacy, a Viking age ring fortress in Denmark, an ancient Thai town and a 2,000-year-old earthworks in Ohio are among the contenders for inscription on the UNESCO World Heritage List this year.

An Air Canada passenger's social media post about a vomit-covered seat became a viral news story earlier this month, and she is now speaking about the power of social media when it comes to holding airlines to account.