RIYADH: Employment in Saudi Arabia’s tourism sector climbed 4 percent year on year in the final quarter of 2024 as the Kingdom accelerated its efforts to expand the industry. 

According to new data from the General Authority for Statistics, the workforce included 242,073 Saudi nationals, making up 25 percent, and 724,458 foreign workers, or 75 percent. 

This aligns with Saudi Arabia’s National Tourism Strategy, which aims to create 1.6 million jobs by 2030, and attract 150 million visitors annually while increasing tourism’s contribution to 10 percent of gross domestic product. 

The figures come in the same week as it was announced that from April 2026 41 tourism roles, including hotel managers, travel agency directors, and tour guides, will be reserved for Saudi nationals under government plans to boost local employment and reduce reliance on foreign labor. 

In its latest report, GASTAT stated that the total number of employees in the sector reached 966,531 during the last three months of 2024, adding: “The number of male employees in tourism activities reached 837,972, with a participation rate of 86.7 percent, while the number of female employees in tourism activities reached 128,559, with a participation rate of 13.3 percent of the total employees in tourism activities during Q4 of 2024.”

The highest employment levels were reported in Riyadh and Makkah regions, which together accounted for nearly two-thirds of the total workforce in tourism-related activities.

Riyadh alone employed 320,617, while Makkah followed with 268,954. The capital also had the highest share of Saudi nationals in the sector at 95,825, or 29.9 percent of its local tourism workforce. 

Saudi Arabia’s hospitality footprint continued to grow, with the number of licensed establishments rising to 4,425 by the end of 2024, including 2,163 hotels and 2,262 serviced apartments and other accommodations. 

The data showed hotel occupancy remained relatively stable at 56 percent, compared to 60.2 percent a year earlier, despite the rapid expansion in licensed capacity. Serviced apartments, meanwhile, saw a modest increase, rising to 55.9 percent from 55.4 percent the previous year. 

The average daily hotel room rate remained competitive at SR440 ($117.31) in the fourth quarter of 2024, slightly easing from SR449 a year earlier. Meanwhile, serviced apartment rates saw strong growth, rising 25.1 percent to SR220 — pointing to increasing demand and limited supply in that segment. 

The data also highlighted the average length of stay for hotel guests, which remained steady at approximately 3.6 nights in the fourth quarter of 2024 — the same as in the corresponding period of 2023. 

In contrast, the average stay in serviced apartments and other hospitality facilities was around 2.1 nights, marking a 12.1 percent decline compared to the same quarter of the previous year.