Tourism supports growth of Kingdom’s gross domestic product

The recent statistics released by the Ministry of Tourism for the first half of 2023 show that tourism in the Kingdom is robust and continuing to achieve encouraging numbers following the remarkable results of 2022.

The data confirms the effectiveness of the ministry and its partners’ efforts in attracting local and international tourism to the Kingdom through the enhancement of product and service quality.

The National Tourism Strategy has supported the flourishing sector in the Kingdom, focusing efforts on transforming it into an industry by enhancing its contribution to the Kingdom’s non-oil gross domestic product.

The tourism sector is expected to unlock the Kingdom’s potential non-oil activities by contributing approximately 10 percent to GDP and creating around 1.6 million job opportunities by 2030.

The total number of tourists (overnight visitors for all purposes) in the Kingdom in the first half of 2023 reached 53.6 million, out of which 39 million were domestic and 14.6 million were inbound tourists.

Gross spending on tourism amounted to SR150 billion ($40 billion) in the first half of 2023, with SR63.1 billion generated from domestic tourism and SR86.9 billion from inbound tourism.

Inbound tourism has achieved historic results in the first half of 2023, recording a 142 percent increase in the number of tourists and a 132 percent increase in total tourism spending compared to the first half of 2022.

In the first half of 2023, the number of tourists for all purposes, including leisure tourists, witnessed the highest growth, reaching 347 percent compared to the same period in 2022.

Domestic tourism recorded a 16 percent growth in tourism spending in the first half of 2023. This growth was attributed to the increase in the average length of stay, which reached 6.3 nights in the first half of 2023 compared to 4.6 nights in the first half of 2022.

I believe that the main reasons for the remarkable increase in the numbers of inbound tourists are the continuous development of the sector, opening Saudi Arabia to global tourism, and the lifting of travel restrictions.

This improvement has contributed to the revised target of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 now being 150 million visits annually by 2030, up from the original target of 100 million.

It is worth noting that since the opening of tourism in 2019, the Kingdom has become one of the fastest-growing tourism markets globally, recording 93.5 million visits in 2022. Additionally, the digitization of visa issuance has contributed to the improvement in inbound foreign tourism.

I believe that the prosperity of the tourism sector in Saudi Arabia demonstrates that the Kingdom is entering a new era of achievements in the area, with the sector recording historic and unprecedented results in terms of the number of tourists and the magnitude of spending.

• Talat Zaki Hafiz is an economist and financial analyst. X: @TalatHafiz