As the tourism sector continues to outperform in Saudi Arabia, Saudi Arabia’s top officials are revising upward its visitor goals from previously targeted levels which were once considered by some to be unachievable when originally set forth. Saudi Arabia will raise its previous 100 million visitors by 2030 target to 150 million, as kingdom officials say the old number is too low. The move was revealed during the Skift Global Forum 2023 by Mahmoud Abdulhadi, Deputy Minister, Destination Enablement at the Ministry of Tourism, according to a report in Skift.
“100 million visits is no longer sufficient,” he said. “We are well above our targets and well above our 2022 performance. So we must be doing something right.”
In 2022, Saudi saw only 16.5 million inbound visitors. But domestically the country saw 77.8 million visitors. Saudi counts that as 94.4 million visitors total in 2022 – a 45% increase on 2019 and spend has gone up 25%, according to the report.
Abdulhadi added that leisure is now the country’s strongest growth area. Leisure accounts for 38% of all visits and 41% of spend as of last year, while the country now has 880,000 people employed in the sector, a 15% increase on 2019.
[Click here to read the full report from SKIFT.com]
