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After years of relying heavily on its oil and gas industries, Saudi Arabia now wants to become a tourist destination. The Middle Eastern country, which had a GDP of $1.4 trillion in 2024, opened its doors to international leisure tourists in 2019, after years of only allowing travel for business, religious or family purposes.
“We are unlocking the value of this great country. We have a lot to offer to the world,” Saudi Arabia’s first tourism minister H.E. Ahmed Al Khateeb said at the Fortune Global Forum in Riyadh. “We want travelers to come and experience the Saudi hospitality, enjoy our coffee and food, and learn about Arabian culture.”
Al Khateeb pitched tourism as a way “to open new jobs—for youth, for women—and to diversify our economy and make it more sustainable.”
Saudi Arabia outlined its development goals in a government program called Saudi Vision 2030. Announced in 2016, the policy seeks to diversify Saudi Arabia’s economy, society and culture, in line with the vision from Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
The country reported a record 116 million tourists in 2024, up from 80 million in 2019. Saudi Arabia now hopes to attract 150 million visitors annually by 2030. Al Khateeb noted that around half of the country’s visitors come for religious purposes—like those completing the hajj pilgrimage—and said he expected the proportion to drop further.
Saudi Arabia also plans to host large-scale events like the 2029 Asian Winter Games, the 2034 FIFA World Cup. The country will also host the United Nations Tourism General Assembly for the first time later this year.
Al Khateeb noted that the country needed “additional airplanes and air carriers,” and so established Riyadh Air in 2023. The minister added that the gulf nation is also building new airports, such as the King Salman International Airport, which will serve commuters flying into Riyadh and add over 300,000 new hotel rooms by 2030.
Delta Air Lines is launching non-stop flights between Atlanta, Ga., and Riyadh beginning October 2026, in what will be the first-ever direct flights between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia. “It’ll start slow, but I believe it’s going to gain popularity,” Delta CEO Ed Bastian said on Monday at the Global Forum.
On Oct. 26, Riyadh Air also started its first-ever daily flights between Riyadh and London, though seats are currently limited to employees and select guests.
Despite the massive buildout, Al Khateeb assured the crowd that protecting the natural environment remains a foremost concern of Saudi Arabia’s government.
“Sustainability is very important for any country. Therefore, we have been preserving all our destinations, whether the mountains in the south or the beautiful islands in the Red Sea,” he said.
The minister cited the country’s 2021 launch of the Sustainable Tourism Global Center—a multi-country initiative to accelerate the tourism industry’s transition to net-zero emissions—as an example of its commitment to green development.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
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