Skift Global Forum Video: Saudi Tourism Pioneers Change

This sponsored content was created in collaboration with a Skift partner.

In this video:

• Progress report on the state of Saudi tourism: Saudi Arabia has ambitious goals for tourism arrivals in the coming years, and a deep dive into progress so far revealed 16.5 million inbound visitors and 77.8 million domestic visitors in 2022, which combined for a 45 percent increase over 2019.
• Future growth patterns look even stronger: With a target of attracting 150 million visitors by 2030, Saudi Arabia is creating a tourism industry that is expected to be the country’s second-largest contributor to GDP, creating 1 million jobs to bring the sector’s total to 1.6 million.
• Highlighting food and culture as a lever to gain traction: In order to achieve its visitation targets, the Vision 2030 plan aims to bring in a range of tourists looking to explore food and culture while expanding its offerings to travelers who come for business or religious purposes.

Saudi Arabia is moving full speed ahead into the tourism sector as a mechanism to diversify its economy. Spurred by the goals of its Vision 2030 plan, the country has plans to bring in tens of millions of new travelers looking to explore its food and culture, in addition to stopping through for business or for religious purposes. With a combination of mountainous terrain, snow and winter sports, deserts, and coastline on the Red Sea, Saudi is looking to brand itself as a top global destination.

In this video from Skift Global Forum 2023, Mahmoud Abdulhadi, deputy minister of destination enablement at the Ministry of Tourism of Saudi Arabia, details the country’s goals and progress in the tourism arena, providing key metrics and outlining the overall mission of Saudi Arabia in the tourism realm.

This content was created collaboratively by Ministry of Tourism Saudi Arabia and Skift’s branded content studio, SkiftX.