RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s tourism industry is making significant strides, contributing 6.4 percent to the annual gross domestic product while emitting only 3.3 percent of global greenhouse gases, according to a new research. 

A report titled “The Environmental Impact of Global Tourism” places the Kingdom at the 15th rank globally for the most significant reduction in emission intensity.  

The first-of-its-kind analysis was jointly presented by Saudi Minister of Tourism Ahmed Al-Khateeb and Julia Simpson, president of the World Tourism and Travel Council, during the Future Investment Initiative held in Riyadh. 

The document evaluates the environmental impact of travel and tourism in 185 countries, spanning the years 2010 to 2021, with 2019 serving as a benchmark for insights into the sector’s sustainability. 

“Now we know the starting point,” stated Al-Khateeb, adding that “one of the challenges that the sector was facing is — how do we track and what is the starting point, how do we monitor what works and what doesn’t work?”  

The report highlights that Saudi Arabia’s tourism sector exhibits significantly lower greenhouse gas emissions compared to the broader Middle East and North Africa region, and these emissions are consistently decreasing.  

“Saudi Arabia will be investing heavily in this sector which is used to represent 3 percent of the gross domestic product in 2019. We want to take this 3 percent to 10 percent in 2030,” the minister said. 

He said tourism in Saudi Arabia is relatively new, with the issuance of tourist visas commencing in September 2019. This positions the Kingdom uniquely, as it can develop a sustainable industry from the outset, avoiding the need for retrofitting sustainability measures. 

Referring to the report as a “groundbreaking piece of work,” Simpson said: “Saudi Arabia is starting a pivotal major journey and pivoting a major part of its economy to tourism, investing $800 billion, and it’s almost like starting with a blank sheet of paper.”  

Speaking on the sidelines of FII, she told Arab News: “With major injections of funds and major redirection, and I think when you start something like that you are in a better position to say how can we do this really well.” 

Simpson stressed the importance of decoupling the sector’s growth from its environmental impact, which the report now makes possible. 

Globally, the findings reveal that while greenhouse gas emissions in tourism increased at an average rate of 2.5 percent annually, reaching 8.1 percent in 2019, the emission intensity of the sector consistently decreased.  

In 2010, every dollar generated in tourism produced 0.62 kg of emissions, but by 2019, this had fallen to 0.53 kg, demonstrating that sector growth is becoming less carbon-intensive.  

Nonetheless, 15 percent of greenhouse gas emissions from tourism and travel can be attributed to energy consumption. This underscores the critical importance of the sector using this benchmark as a driver to “switch our energy to renewables as soon as possible,” as highlighted by the WTTC president. 

The value of the data of this report and the implications of it do not impact Saudi alone. The Ministry of Tourism, along with the WTTC “do not only have a commitment to be sustainable in the country, but are helping the world by providing data of 184 countries globally,” Chief Special Advisor to the Saudi Tourism Minister, Gloria Guevara, told Arab News. 

While the sector aims to double its contribution to the global GDP in the next decade, the research highlighted that in 2019, global tourism was responsible for 8.1 percent of greenhouse gas emissions and constituted a 10.6 percent share of the total energy footprint associated with travel and tourism. Guevara underscored that this data illustrates that the sector, in proportion to its productivity, emits a relatively lower amount of carbon emissions.

In accordance with the Kingdom's sustainability agenda, as underscored by Guevara, this commitment is considered “very important,” as it necessitates that every initiative adheres to the mandate of the Crown Prince for sustainability. 

The World Tourism Council, in collaboration with Saudi Arabia, is facilitating opportunities for major hoteliers to meet their procurement needs by enabling global hotel companies to source all their energy requirements from a single global renewable energy provider.  

This approach eliminates the need for negotiating individual agreements with each country, streamlining the process and enhancing sustainability efforts in the hotel industry. 

The report seeks to address a data gap that was previously uncharted for many communities worldwide due to its clarity and ongoing insights. Guevara noted that “before this report, we had two reports, they didn’t match, and it was complicated.” 

“It’s easy to know what works if you have the research, but we didn’t have good research...this is why Saudi decided to fund this report,” she concluded.