Saudi Arabia is on a massive building spree—creating private islands, luxury hotels, theme parks, cruise ports, and even a desert ski resort. The question remains: If they build it, who will come?

It can be difficult to visualize the vastness of Saudi Arabia’s physical transformation. Some of the most notable ongoing projects—including Sindalah, a 7-star private island, and Trojena, an improbable desert ski resort—fall within NEOM, a $500-billion built-from-scratch region in northwest Saudi Arabia where the Kingdom is creating new cities, resorts and other developments. Bankrolled mainly by the Kingdom’s $700-billion Public Investment Fund (PIF), the idea for NEOM was born out of Vision 2030, Saudi Arabia’s grand plan to shake off its historic reliance on oil and diversify its economy, reinventing the country as a global tourism juggernaut.

Euromonitor predicts that international tourists will spend $38 billion in 2030. But the total economic impact for Saudi Arabia will be far greater after adding in domestic travelers’ expenditures and the ripple effect of one million new tourism jobs. The World Travel & Tourism Council projects that, by 2032, Saudi Arabia’s tourism sector could contribute nearly $169 billion to its GDP, representing 17.1% of the total Saudi economy.

00:00 Intro
00:24 New Cities, Resorts, and Hotels
02:05 Saudi Arabia’s Tourism Moonshot
03:09 Foreign Travelers in Saudi Arabia
04:39 Preparing For The Future

Read the full story on Forbes:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/suzannerowankelleher/2024/01/29/inside-saudi-arabias-800-billion-tourism-moonshot-neom-sindalah-trojena-red-sea-global

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