RIYADH —
Saudi Arabia aims to triple foreign tourism this year as pandemic restrictions
ease, hajj pilgrims return, and the first elements of the crown prince’s
signature projects open, its tourism minister told AFP Sunday.
اضافة اعلان
The famously
conservative and closed-off kingdom inaugurated tourist visas in September
2019, just months before the coronavirus pandemic decimated the industry globally.
An uptick in
domestic travel in 2020 and 2021 — authorities tallied a record 64 million
“domestic visits” last year — helped save the nascent Saudi tourism sector from
collapse, and now authorities want to seize more of the international market,
Ahmed Al-Khateeb said in an interview.
“Now we are
pushing and moving to attract more... international visitors,” he said,
specifying the goal for this year was 12 million, up from 4 million in 2021.
“We are back and we are very optimistic. Countries started to open their
borders, restrictions started to ease down, and people started to travel,” he
said.
Saudi Arabia has
raised eyebrows with its goal of attracting 100 million visitors by 2030, an
element of
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s Vision 2030 reform agenda
intended to diversify the oil-dependent economy and open up the kingdom to the
world.
While the
kingdom has in recent years relaxed rules barring cinemas, gender-mixed
concerts and sporting extravaganzas, other regulations including an alcohol ban
remain in place, potentially denting its appeal.
Khateeb
specified Sunday that of the 100 million targeted visitors for 2030, 30 million
are meant to come from abroad while the rest would be people traveling within
Saudi Arabia. Some 30 million visits will be religious trips by both residents
and foreigners, largely to
Mecca and Medina, Islam’s two holiest sites.
Next month
authorities plan to allow one million pilgrims to perform the hajj, after two
years in which the coronavirus pandemic forced drastic limits on numbers for
the annual ritual.
Another
high-profile feature of the tourism push is so-called giga-projects spearheaded
by Prince Mohammed, including the $500 billion futuristic megacity known as
NEOM and Diriyah, the seat of the first Saudi state which is being redeveloped
as a heritage and entertainment destination.
A restaurant
district in Diriyah is set to open in September, while other elements of such
projects will come online “from 2025 onwards”, Khateeb said.
“This is a new level of
tourism which does not exist today,” said Khateeb who sits on the board of
NEOM. “Saudi Arabia will change the tourism landscape globally... the
destinations that Saudi will offer by 2030, it’s something completely different,”
he added.
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