Shura resort launches as Saudi megaprojects bow to budget gaps

It’s showtime this week for Shura Island, the Saudi Public Investment Fund’s $690 million luxury resort project whose opening has been postponed since early last year.

Managed by Four Seasons, the island’s development is backed by the PIF’s Red Sea Global and Prince Alwaleed bin Talal’s Kingdom Holding as a part of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s effort to turn the kingdom into a luxury tourism magnet.

But in the shadow of the launch parties and coral reef marketing campaigns, consultants are being hired to tell ministries and developers that some of Saudi Arabia’s multibillion-dollar projects are too expensive to build, as the kingdom struggles with budget deficits, Intelligence Online reports.

The government’s budget troubles have forced officials to slow, shrink or shut down projects ranging from parts of NEOM’s The Line and the Trojena ski resort to Riyadh’s cube-shaped Mukaab.

A centerpiece of the Red Sea gigaproject, the Shura Island resort includes 149 rooms and suites, 31 residences and six restaurants, with 11 hotels already operating along the Red Sea beach area and six more opening soon on Shura Island itself, Arabian Gulf Business Insight reports. Bookings open from May 20.

UAE sets out to turn Jordanian beach property into luxury resort

The UAE is moving ahead with plans to transform a piece of Jordan’s Red Sea beachfront into a luxury resort.

MAG Group, a subsidiary of ADQ’s AD Ports Group that was appointed on Sunday as the project’s developer, said it will soon begin work on the Marsa Zayed property in the southern port city of Aqaba, which abuts the Saudi border.

In the first phase, MAG will begin construction on ​​what will be called the Zayed Riviera with four residential towers, a yacht club, and restoration of the Aqaba Minaret.

The Jordanian project could potentially link to similar planned resorts in Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Israel that form a border-traversing horseshoe around the Red Sea.