TBM Staff - Mumbai The recently concluded WTTC Global Summit brought the global spotlight on the host country, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). World tourism leaders and members of WTTC have pledged investment worth USD 10.5 billion in the coming five years in Saudi Arabia, said Julia Simpson, President & CEO, WTTC.
This announcement comes at a time when the Kingdom has set its sights on raising its international profile to emerge as a competitive tourism player, globally, with an aim of welcoming 100 million visitors, annually, by 2030.
Having identified tourism as an important revenue generator and its potential to contribute more than 10% to its GDP, the KSA has earmarked a budget of USD 500 billion towards tourism development and special projects. This ambitious multi-billion dollar target spend will be utilised in realising its Vision 2030, an economic, social and transformative plan to elevate the Kingdom’s international profile, keeping in mind the target to attract 100 million visitors by 2030.
Talking about this plan, Alhasan Ali Aldabbagh, President, APAC Markets, Saudi Tourism Authority, said, “Tourism is the core of Vision 2030. And as part of this vision by 2030 we want to achieve 100 million visits in Saudi Arabia. This is very ambitious. We want to make Saudi one of the top five destinations in the world for tourism. We have already set out on a road map to achieve this target going forward, and also to increase our tourism GDP to 10 per cent by 2030,” informed Aldabbagh. In 2021, Saudi clocked 62 million visits, which were predominantly domestic tourists and only around three million international visitors.
The Vision 2030 entails huge infrastructure development of new cities, entertainment and cultural complexes, world-class accommodation options, construction projects as well as leisure tourism sites.
