Saudi Arabia taps Monaco expertise for Red Sea yachting
Saudi Arabia is planning to bring the sparkle of Mediterranean marinas to its Red Sea coast, seeking counsel from the Principality of Monaco as it attempts to grow its yachting sector.
The Saudi Red Sea Authority has already issued 29 tourism licenses for yacht chartering and marina operations for its 1,800km coastline, which includes more than 1,000 islands and 150 pristine beaches.
Now it has signed agreements with the Yacht Club de Monaco and the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation to help develop the sector.
Monaco, a minuscule tax haven on the French Riviera, is famous for attracting gigantic super yachts – and their billionaire owners – to its iconic Port Hercule, the glittering backdrop to one of the world’s most famous F1 circuits.
Saudi’s ambition is to attract 250,000 visitors from yacht tourism by 2030, generating $2.9 billion and creating 28,000 jobs.
Gulf states vie for investors on Swiss resort’s frigid streets
As the World Economic Forum opened Monday on the icy streets of Davos, Saudi Arabia and the UAE were beckoning delegates to come in from the cold – touting a range of gatherings inside their well-heated pavilions on the Swiss ski resort’s main drag.
Saudi House, an all-in-one base at 105 Promenade Street that the kingdom is using to attract foreign investment, will feature programs and exhibits prepared by 13 separate agencies.
They range from the Investment and Tourism ministries to the Royal Commission for AlUla – the ancient desert city, now a center for museums and resorts – to the Diriyah Company – which is carrying out a $63 billion overhaul of Riyadh’s historic core.
Walk-in visitors are generally treated to assorted varieties of Saudi dates and cardamom-infused coffee. Saudi House will also be hosting more elaborate luncheons and dinner meetings during the week.
“The kingdom’s approach to unlocking its potential involves really rewriting the economic playbook,” Saudi Economy and Planning Minister Faisal Alibrahim told Arab News in an interview published today.
“This is not just about investments or the government spending money,” he said. “This is about creating an environment that’s vibrant, that attracts capital, attracts minds to the opportunities that are being created in the kingdom led today by the government.”
Down the road at 68 Promenade Street, the UAE will also have a crowded schedule. On Tuesday, G42 Chief Operating Officer Mansoor Al Mansoori will host Brad Smith, Vice Chair and President of Microsoft, for a public chat on “how global cooperation can address challenges like ethical governance, inclusivity, and shared innovation.”
Saudi Arabia has patterned its own annual business forum after the Swiss gathering, establishing the Future Investment Initiative conference in 2017 that was immediately dubbed “Davos in the Desert.”
At its eighth edition last October, some 7,000 movers and shakers poured into Riyadh for the get-together that takes place at the opulent Ritz Carlton hotel and in the vast halls of the adjacent King Abdul Aziz International Conference Center.
Getting a jump on the confab, the developers of Saudi Arabia’s trillion-dollar-plus Neom project invited a select group of financiers, celebrities and influencers to a kickoff event at Sindalah Island, five kilometers off the kingdom’s west coast.
The Red Sea resort island, where an ecosystem is rising of super-luxury hotels, swank night clubs and an 86-berth yacht marina, hosted a beach party headlined by Grammy Award winner Alicia Keys. She sang to an audience that included actor Will Smith, tennis champ Rafael Nidal and former NFL quarterback Tom Brady.
Back in the capital, FII featured a bevy of investment bankers, hedge fund founders and corporate titans who are veterans of Davos and have become regulars at the Saudi conference, showcasing its aspirations for global influence.
Among the speakers on the main stage were bankers Larry Fink, Chairman and CEO of BlackRock; Ben Horowitz, co-founder of Andreesen Horowitz Jane Fraser, CEO of Citi; Ken Griffin, Founder and CEO of Citadel. Others included Dame Julia Hoggett, CEO of the London Stock Exchange; Ruth Porat, President and Chief Investment Officer of Alphabet and Google; and Ben Horowitz, co-founder of Andreesen Horowitz.
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The three-day event was introduced by Yasir Al-Rumayyan, who is Governor of the Saudi Public Investment Fund and Chairman of Aramco. Richard Attias, who hosts and produces the Saudi conference as CEO of the FII Institute, was earlier in his career producer of the WEF conference in Davos.
Gulf tourists in Hong Kong spend more money than ever
Hong Kong is rolling out the red carpet for Saudi and Emirati travelers with a love of luxury.
Armed with data that show visitors from Saudi Arabia and the UAE are likely to spend some $1,450 a day when they visit, Hong Kong tourism officials have launched a new campaign aimed at the Gulf to promote their plush hotels, Michelin-starred Cantonese restaurants and South China Sea landscapes.
At a time that political friction weighs on Chinese ties with the U.S. and Europe, Hong Kong – classified as a Special Administrative Region of China with limited autonomy – is broadening its focus and finding a wealthy audience in the GCC region eager to explore Asia in style.
“Since 2010 we have watched the GCC market grow, especially Dubai, which is now a global capital,” Henry Wong, Director of Trade Development at Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB), told The Circuit. “We believe it’s the right time to focus” on Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
The new attention to the Gulf was evident at the Arabian Travel Market conference in Dubai that took place in May, where the HKTB set up its largest booth ever with representatives from more than 30 hotels, travel agencies and cultural institutions.
In October, the tourism agency will sponsor a trade mission to Riyadh and Dubai, bringing in representatives from Hong Kong hotels and other businesses for networking with the Gulf travel industry.
During the travel conference in May, Hong Kong officials signed draft agreements with the UAE government to expand tourism within the GCC market and with the dnata Travel Group to strengthen partnerships with Gulf airlines and travel agencies. The UAE also signed a preliminary agreement with the China Cultural Center to facilitate air travel to China and organize promotional trips to familiarize UAE travel agents with the world’s second most populous country.
Among the attractions being promoted this year are the Palace Museum, the West Kowloon Cultural District, M+ and the Art Basel Hong Kong art fair, Becky Ip, Deputy Executive Director of HKTB, told The Circuit
“GCC travelers used to travel more to Europe and even Thailand and Malaysia,” she said. “Now I think they are prepared to go beyond these places and see more of the east.”
Saudi investment in heritage tourism is starting to pay off
Across Saudi Arabia, ancient sites filled with the remnants of mud-brick imperial palaces and rocky Nabatean tombs are coming back to life.
From Riyadh’s Diriyah royal district and storied Red Sea port of Jeddah to the desert region of AlUla, the kingdom is spending lavishly to uncover its buried past and use it as a draw for both foreign and domestic tourists.
The dusty Jax industrial area on the outskirts of the Saudi capital, for example, has been transformed into a creative district crowned by the new Saudi Museum of Contemporary Art, or SAMoCA. Doors opened this week at teamLab Borderless Jeddah, the country’s first digital art museum, which sits in Jeddah’s historic Al-Balad neighborhood.
“Just like the preservation of the environment, it is crucial to preserve culture,” Fahd Hamidaddin, CEO of the Saudi Tourism Authority, said during a media roundtable discussion last month at the Arabian Travel Market conference in Dubai. “We are trying our best to make big bets on how much we can do that.”
Among the kingdom’s biggest bets so far is ancient AlUla, in which the government has poured billions to turn the site into a magnet for hikers, history buffs, art lovers and luxury travelers. In January, the Royal Commission for AlUla set up its own pavilion on the snowy main street of Davos, suiting up financiers at the World Economic Forum (WEF) with 3D goggles for an immersive virtual tour of the arid terrain.
“We are aiming to uphold the traditions and heritage of what AlUla has stood for across millennia,” Melanie de Souza, the commission’s Executive Director of Destination Marketing, told The Circuit at the Dubai travel conference. “We believe we have a responsibility to be preserving that heritage and telling a deep and rich story about it.”
Visitors can explore AlUla through guided excursions that show off the ancient rock formations and archaeological wonders of the Nabateans, who ruled northern Arabia and the southern Levant between the 4th and 2nd centuries BC. Accommodations range from mid-market hotels to new five-star resorts such as the Caravan by Habitas AlUla and the Banyan Tree AlUla.
Both hotels have been built according to environmentally sustainable principles and evoke ancient Nabatean architecture in their design. Guests are greeted by professional guides known as “rawis,” who are trained to help visitors understand AlUla’s history. The commission expects to create 40,000 new jobs over the next decade in AlUla, where unemployment runs high.
Last year, AlUla’s mirror-walled Maraya Concert Hall was the site of a three-month exhibition dedicated to American pop artist Andy Warhol that included his signature portraits of Muhammad Ali, Bob Dylan and Elizabeth Taylor.
Now the area’s new Al Jadidah Arts District offers several new spaces for contemporary art and design, including Athr and Design Space AlUla. Meanwhile, a range of casual and high-end restaurants have introduced dishes derived from the ancient Nabateans and their desert landscape.
Over the last five years since Saudi Arabia first introduced online visas for international visitors, tourism has grown dramatically. More than 100 million visitors entered the kingdom in 2023, a 56% increase from 2019.
The investment in heritage sites across Saudi Arabia also appears to be paying off. Close to 92% of AlUla visitors visit archeological sites or engage in other heritage-related activities, according to the commission, and ticket transactions for heritage experiences increased by 30% in 2023. Saudi Tourism Minister Ahmed Al Khateeb said at the WEF’s Riyadh summit in April that the kingdom’s tourism sector expects to rake in $80 billion in 2024 while introducing foreign travelers to Saudi culture.
“You get the best experience, and you know more about other people’s culture and other nations’ cultures when you deal and interact with locals,” Al-Khateeb said at the conference. “We want to make sure that our guests are served by local people.”
In Jeddah, three historic properties in Al-Balad – Beit Jokhdar, Beit Al Rayess and Beit Kedwan– are being restored as “heritage hotels.” The project is part of $20 billion Jeddah Central Project that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman announced in 2020 that is rehabilitating some 5.7 million square meters of the city’s historic waterfront.
“For us, tourism is way more than just another economic sector,” Hamidaddin said. “It has allowed us to have a voice that brings the world’s attention to Saudi.”
Saudia airline being repositioned for kingdom’s tourism push
As Saudi Arabia’s new Riyadh Air prepares to start flying next year, the kingdom’s venerable carrier Saudia is being repositioned to fit into a new blueprint for boosting business and tourism.
The Saudi Public Investment Fund has started talks to acquire Jeddah-based Saudia, which flies to 90 destinations, in a step that may lead to the airline’s privatization, Bloomberg reports.
The two airlines will work in tandem to pursue the kingdom’s twin goals of bolstering access to Saudi Arabia as a regional finance hub while also turning it into a magnet for foreign tourists.
Under the plan, Riyadh Air pursues the business crowd and Saudia will focus more on the market for religious pilgrimages to the holy cities of Mecca and Medina.
Saudi Arabia’s $800 billion tourism plan starts to take shape
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Four years after opening up to international tourists for the first time, Saudi Arabia marked progress on its massive $800 billion investment drive to lure travelers as it played host to the United Nations’ World Tourism Day.
Riyadh welcomed over 500 government officials, investors, international press and U.N. delegates from 120 countries last week to underscore the importance of the global tourism industry. The occasion was also an opportunity for Saudi Arabia to set out more bold plans for its young tourism sector as it seeks to diversify its economy beyond oil revenues.
“If you want to introduce your country to the world, then tourism is the best way to do it,” Zurab Pololikashvili, secretary-general of the U.N. World Tourism Organization, said during a roundtable discussion.
Neom has signed around 18 hotel deals – including with luxury brands like JW Marriott, The W and German boutique concept 25Hours – and has a target of 200 total, most of them to be built on The Line, a spokesperson for Neom Hotel Development told The Circuit.
First unveiled by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in 2017, Neom is a $500 billion mega-project in the northwest of the country along the Red Sea coast, with construction underway on a variety of zones such as a mountain ski resort, an island getaway, a major port and a city-of-the-future concept known as The Line, where the majority of the hotels will be built.
The flurry of deals in Neom marks a shift for the kingdom, which has always catered to Muslim pilgrimage tourists. The majority of hotels currently open in Saudi Arabia are centralized in Medina adjacent to the holy site of Mecca.
Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Tourism Ahmed Al-Khateeb announced the creation of the Riyadh School for Tourism and Hospitality to build a pipeline of talent to staff the fast-growing industry. Set to open in 2027, it will cost more than $1 billion to build and be located in the capital’s entertainment and tourism project known as Qiddiyah.
Pololikashvili also announced the creation of a center for the study of sustainability — of which the UNWTO was working closely with officials in the kingdom to accomplish. The program is due to be launched in September and will offer a bachelor’s degree program with students spending time pursuing studies in Madrid, Spain and the Swiss city of Lucerne.
Al-Khateeb said the kingdom will invest $800 billion to develop tourism over the next decade as the contribution of travel and tourism to the nation’s economy begins to pick up pace. The goal is for the sector to contribute up to 10% of gross domestic product by 2030, up from a current 4.5%.
The kingdom has also raised its tourism targets, setting a goal of attracting 70 million international visitors annually by 2030, up from 50 million, Bloomberg reported.
Among the various delegates in attendance at World Tourism Day was Israel’s Tourism Minister Haim Katz, who arrived in the kingdom on Tuesday, becoming the first Israeli minister to lead a delegation to Saudi Arabia. The visit comes at a time when Israel and the kingdom are moving closer towards a U.S.-brokered normalization deal.
Pololikashvili said Saudi Arabia was obliged to admit the Israeli minister for the U.N. event even though the two countries don’t have diplomatic relations. “All our member states are invited to take part in our events – independently of where they are held,” Pololikashvili told The Circuit.
