Speaking the IHIF EMEA 2025 conference in Berlin, Germany, Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Tourism GM investment planning and attraction Tareq Al-Shaghrood said the country launched its Vision 2030 programme in 2016 with the aim of transform its tourism industry.
The aim is to make tourism a key part of the country’s diversification into new industries and has been further backed by the National Tourism Strategy launched in 2019 and which aims to attract 100 million tourists by 2030, contribute 10% of overall GDP and create one million new jobs in the sector.
Al-Shaghrood said: “Ultimately what we are trying to do with the tourism sector is to create an investable and sustainable sector for both domestic and international investors, operators and key stakeholders.”
He added to bring the project to life the Saudis have identified $240 billion worth of required investments, $160 billion of which has already been covered by public and private sector funding.
“We still have an $80 billion opportunity for investors to come in and develop across hospitality and retail,” he said.
“For us it is quite exciting, we’ve seen a lot of openings so the plans have now turned into real life projects you can visit.”
Al-Shaghrood said this was evident at the country’s Red Sea project where the number of hotels has doubled from three to six in the last year while a further 11 are expected to open this year.
He added anyone investing in the country, which is nearly the size of western Europe, can take advantage of the country’s varied offering ranging from beaches to mountains while its list of six registered UNESCO sites is expected to grow in the next few years.
“Ultimately, what we’re trying to do is utilise those assets and share them with the world, we’re trying to build destinations that are world class and provide a world-class service,” Al-Shaghrood added.
He said since the launch of the national tourism strategy it has been so successful it is the G20’s fastest growing tourism destination as it expands from religious and business tourism while in 2023 the kingdom saw 109 million visits, prompting it revise its Vision 2030 figures.
Meanwhile, 2024 has seen new records set in visitor numbers which are expected to be released soon, Al-Shaghrood added.
Aseer Development Authority chief of investment Sultan Alshehri agreed that the project was bearing fruit, with a 680% increase in tourist spend since pre Covid while international brands including Hilton, IHG and Accord are increasingly opening properties in the destination.
“We have seen unprecedented interest from international operators as well as investors both locally and internationally,” he added.
Al-Shaghrood said while much of the development has been driven by Saudi public investment private investment is equally important.
To this end, he added the government has introduced a number of new measures “to enhance the ease and cost of doing business for international and domestic investors within the tourism, sector”.
He said this includes the tourism investment enablers programme to underwrite various programmes including an incentives programme targeted at investors and developers which can subsidise up to 25% of total capex expenditure in priority destinations.
In addition, hotel owners in the country will receive a 75 per cent reduction in fees paid to the government while a new regulation means international investors will be treated the same as domestic investors, so creating a level playing field for the industry.
There is also new one-stop shop has brought all government service providers together to ease any bureaucracy.
“We’re really focused on creating that hospitable environment [for investors],” Al-Shaghrood said.
By Edward Robertson
