Saudi Leads MENA Region in International Tourism
Saudi Arabia and the wider Middle East are expected to see a 36 per cent spike in international tourism between June and August compared to last year, a report by travel data firm ForwardKeys revealed. Saudi Arabia is expected to lead this demand with a 475 per cent increase in travellers compared to 2022 and a 56 per cent surge from pre-pandemic levels, the report said.
The upcoming influx of travellers this summer will largely be the result of the government’s decision to lift the cap on the number of pilgrims who can perform Hajj this year – the first time since COVID-19. The Kingdom has been investing heavily in tourism in a bid to attract regional and international markets; the report suggests that the investments are working.
The Chief Executive Officer of the Saudi Tourism Authority (STA) Fahd Hamidaddin told the Arabian Travel Market last month that tourism would be “the new oil” for the Kingdom. “The world in the 1920s came to Saudi for oil, now the world will come in the 2020s for tourism. Tourism is the new oil,” he said at the time.
Meanwhile, neighbouring UAE, which enjoys most of the MENA region’s tourism influx, will see a 43 per cent increase compared to 2022 and an eight per cent drop compared to pre-pandemic times, according to the same report.
Earlier this month, Saif Mohammed al-Suwaidi, Director-General of the General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA), announced that the number of passengers travelling through UAE’s airports during the first quarter of 2023 increased by 56.3 per cent compared to the same period in 2022.
The number of passengers through the UAE’s airports reached approximately 31,862,635, an increase of more than 11.48 million passengers from the same period in 2022, where about 20,381,324 passengers were recorded, according to al-Suwaidi. According to the report, travellers flying out of the MENA region are expected to flock to destinations in the east during the summer months.
