The Ministry of Tourism released it’s annual tourism statistics report for 2023 this week reflecting significant growth in tourist numbers and spending.
The report noted that more than 27 million international tourists spent $37.6 billion in Saudi Arabia in 2023, the highest figure yet and a 44% rise on 2022 and significantly above the previous high set in 2019 of 17.5 million inbound tourists in 2019 who spent $27.5 billion.
The Ministry says it had a total of 109 million domestic and international tourists in 2023.
The report included additional data on tourism activity:
The largest portion of spending was on accommodation, reaching $12 billion. The report also highlighted that shopping spend reached $6.8 billion, with Local Transport amounting to approximately $5.7 billion. Food and beverage spending surpassed $5 billion, while other expenses surpassed $6 billion. Additionally, entertainment spending topped $1 billion.
More more than 8.6 million tourists from GCC countries visited KSA in 2023, spending $4 billion. Bahrain ranked first among GCC countries with 3.4 million tourists, followed by Kuwait with over 2.3 million, UAE with nearly 1.4 million, Qatar with around 1.1 million, and Oman with 455,000.
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