Saudi's New Leisure Tourism Sector

Leisure tourism is the newest frontier in Saudi Arabia. The majority of the $1 trillion USD investment that has been earmarked for developing the Saudi tourism economy to date has been deployed for this leisure segment. There are several mega-projects (projects with investment values over $1 billion) and giga-projects (projects with investment values over $10 billion) announced amounting to over $550 billion USD worth of exciting tourism destinations all coming online by 2030. 

In 2019, Saudi Arabia was able to achieve 45 million tourist visits, of which approximately 18 million were leisure visits. In the same year, SAUDIA, the Kingdom’s national carrier, facilitated the arrival of 36.9 million passengers. The Kingdom aims not only to attract more domestic tourism within its own borders, but to attract more foreig