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Why Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea coast could be the next big luxury tourism destination
15.09.2023 - 16:53 / edition.cnn.com
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Travelers are running out of new places to discover, but there could be one treasure hidden in plain sight.
Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea coast stretches for more than a thousand miles, from the northern border with Jordan in the Gulf of Aqaba to Yemen in the far south.
Much of that, outside of big cities like Jeddah, is undeveloped coastline of turquoise water, offshore islands, pristine beaches and coral reefs.
Now, as part of Saudi’s Vision 2030 plan to diversify the economy, reduce its reliance on oil revenue and implement social reform, a number of ultra-luxury schemes, touted by government-funded developers as the pinnacle of eco-consciousness, are under way on the Red Sea shores.
“This is really exciting to see this is opening up to the world,” says Firas Jundi, regional manager of the Middle East for PADI, the Professional Association of Diving Instructors.
“I grew up in Saudi and started diving there in 1989, and then the north was only accessible via four-wheel drives.
“When you get to the shore you see it is pristine, untouched, with clear visibility, like a huge swimming pool full of fish.
“This has not been a diving destination so you can imagine how protected the coral is.”
The shimmering mirrored building that vanishes into the desert
The Red Sea region encompasses 28,000 square kilometers of coastline and 90 offshore islands some 300 miles north of Jeddah, and AMAALA, further north in the Prince Mohammed bin Salman Natural Reserve, are part of Saudi’s so-called giga projects.
They will feature boutique resorts offering a wealth of water sports and other activities including arts, culture and education based around the sea, the desert, the dunes and the mountains, say developers.
Both will be served by the forthcoming Red Sea International Airport which is scheduled to open to domestic flights in 2023.
“When I first came here and went out to the islands and saw about seven shades of blue, I thought, ‘how many shades of blue can you get in the sea?’” says Rosanna Chopra, the executive director of destination development for Red Sea Global, the umbrella development company for the projects, owned by Saudi’s government-controlled Public Investment Fund (PIF).
“Even now I think, ‘What on Earth is this glorious place and why has it been such a secret for so long?’
“The islands and the marine life and the dolphins, it’s just like some sort of fantastical world. You become really overwhelmed by the responsibility of trying
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