In 2014 travel and tourism investment reached SR92bn ($24.5bn), or 13.6% of total investment.
That same year 54.1m domestic trips were recorded, with total receipts reaching SR47.9bn ($12.8bn).Īccording to the WTTC, leisure spending accounted for 90.4% of all visitor spending in 2015, while business spending made up the remaining 9.6%. Spendingįigures from the Kingdom’s Tourism Information and Research Centre (MAS), the statistical arm of the SCTH, indicate that 17.99m inbound tourists visited the Kingdom in 2015, with receipts from those trips adding up to SR84.1bn ($22.4bn).
Of these 45,200, or approximately 27% of the total, were Saudi nationals. The indirect contribution includes all travel and tourism investment spending, such as new aircraft and the construction of new hotels government collective spending on the sector, including tourism marketing and promotion, and resort area security services and domestic purchases of goods and services related to the sector, including food and cleaning services purchased by hotels, fuel and catering services purchased by airlines, and IT services purchased by travel companies.Īccording to figures from the SCTH, the Kingdom’s tourism sector generated direct employment for 882,900 people in 2015.
When the sector’s indirect input is included, the industry’s total contribution reached 8% of GDP in 2015. Forecasts from the organisation for 2016 anticipate another slight decline in the dollar contribution, to $15.8bn, but a continuing increase in the share of GDP to 2.6%, as tourism grows in importance and hydrocarbons earnings remain subdued. In FiguresĪccording to the latest figures compiled by the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), Saudi Arabia’s tourism industry directly contributed SR59.6bn ($15.9bn) to the economy in 2015, or 2.5% of total GDP. The government is pairing a concerted effort to move the economy away from hydrocarbons with a drive to attract more nationals to tourism, following the launch of many training centres and colleges in recent years. Various incentives aim to place private players at the centre of these efforts, with the Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage (SCTH) actively looking for the cooperation of private partners in many of its ventures. Launched in April 2016, the Post-Umrah initiative, which allows Umrah pilgrims to convert their visas into tourist visas, is part of the effort to increase the revenue generated from the sector (see analysis).
Under Vision 2030 there are plans to develop the sector as a major contributor the economy, with reforms to visa issuance and development of historic heritage sites integral to boosting the numbers. The seasonal nature of many pilgrim visits has historically presented a challenge to the country’s tourism authorities, and as a result, recent years have witnessed various plans and initiatives to drive tourism activities across the Kingdom more broadly, by enhancing existing facilities and developing resort-style tourist centres as well as promoting awareness of the options available for domestic tourists. With the holy cities of Makkah and Medina attracting millions of pilgrims every year, the bulk of Saudi Arabia’s tourist industry remains concentrated in these two areas.
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