Arab News, Wednesday, Dec 14, 2022 | Jamadi Al Awwal 20, 1444
International tourist arrivals in Saudi Arabia up 575% to 3.6m in Q2: MISA
Saudi Arabia:
Tourists continued to flock to Saudi Arabia in the second quarter of 2022, with
the Kingdom seeing a huge 575.4 percent increase on the same period a year
earlier.
Some 3.6 million visitors traveled to the Kingdom
in the three months to the end of June, according to figures released by the
Ministry of Investment, while the number of domestic tourists in Saudi also
climbed by 42.3 percent to hit 21.4 million.
The monthly bulletin of MISA showed that inbound
tourist spending rose by 570 percent in the second quarter to SR15.7 billion
($4.18 billion), while domestic tourist spending increased by 31.5 percent to
SR22.7 billion during the same period.
Over the first half of the year, spending by
international tourists in the Kingdom reached SR27 billion as the number of
visitors surged to 46 million during the same period.
The National Tourism Strategy of Saudi Arabia is
planning to attract 100 million tourists by the end of this decade, in line with
the goals outlined in Vision 2030.
The strategy also aims for the tourism sector to
contribute 10 percent to the Kingdom’s overall gross domestic product as Saudi
Arabia is diversifying its economy which has been dependent on oil for several
decades.
As Saudi Arabia continues its tourism initiatives,
the Kingdom advanced 10 positions to rank 33 in the latest travel and tourism
development index.
In November, during the World Travel and Tourism
Council Global Summit, Saudi Minister of Tourism Ahmed Al-Khateeb said the
Kingdom is offering investment opportunities worth $6 trillion in the travel and
tourism sector through to 2030.
He also added that Saudi Arabia is evolving both
as a rapidly developing destination and as a global partner which is driving
change across the travel and tourism sector.
During the event, Saudi Minister of Investment
Khalid Al-Falih noted that the ministry and the Public Investment Fund are
supporting the tourism sector in the Kingdom, to accelerate the economic
diversification strategy.
Saudi Arabia is developing several projects as a
part of its tourism strategy, and the most noted one is NEOM, the $500 billion
future megacity, which will feature a nature reserve, coral reefs and heritage
sites on several islands along the Red Sea, and Qiddiya.
While speaking at WTTC Summit, NEOM’s CEO Nadhmi
Al-Nasr said that the megacity has all the geographical advantages to emerge as
a global tourism hub.
“We are just two hours from Europe. Believe it or
not, we see Africa within miles. We are a connection of three continents,” he
noted.