RIYADH: British content creator and social influencer John bin London has said he is amazed at the resilience of Saudi Arabia and its people and believes nothing will stop the Kingdom’s success.
Bin London, a native of Nottingham, England, who grew up in Abu Dhabi, was the first guest on the seventh season of The Mayman Show.
He expressed his admiration of the Saudi people and the Kingdom’s rapid transformation.
“Saudis have a ‘nothing will stop us or will get in our way and we will succeed’ (attitude),” he said. “This is something that I saw within the people.”
He added that whether it was Telfaz 11 — a creative media studio led by an enthusiastic team of storytellers and social influencers — or students he met from small Saudi villages who had traveled to the UK to obtain university degrees, everyone seemed to have a “never quit” mentality.
Bin London also used the partial privatization of oil giant Saudi Aramco as a prime example of the Kingdom’s flourishing economy potential and appeal.
The initial public offering saw 100 percent of the shares transferred to the Public Investment Fund. Some 95 percent remained with the sovereign wealth fund, with the other 5 percent floated to private investors.
“The economics say, ‘Oh this is not going to work, and if it fails this and that,’ and then in a few years, what did we see? We saw a growth of 150 percent,” said bin London.
He also highlighted NEOM’s The Line project. Built on 34 sq. km, it will eventually accommodate 9 million people with a reduced infrastructure footprint, creating new methods of efficiency.
“I remember, not long ago, people doubted The Line and then suddenly they saw the trucks going in, and The Line being built, this shut them up,” he said.
Bin London’s view of Saudi perseverance did not just come from observing projects and financial deals, however. He firmly believes that success comes from the people behind it — starting with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman: “I think it was obvious to everyone who was following and paying attention what was going to happen in this country.”
The influencer, who is fluent in Arabic and has also mastered the Najdi Arabic dialect, creates content in the language to advocate for the opportunities offered in the land he has decided to make his home.
“I started picking up on vocabulary, pronunciation, from their dialects. It was, I guess, an unconscious thing,” he said.
“It was just who you hear around you, how they speak. You start copying it and then later on a lot of my friends were from the Otaibi tribe, which … spreads from Taif, Hijaz and into Najd.”
The Briton lauds many Saudi tourist destinations but says Diriyah, the Kingdom’s birthplace and home of At-Turaif, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, will always have a special place in his heart.
“Diriyah is one of my favorite places. It was somewhere that before my first visit to Saudi Arabia, which was in the end of 2022, I literally dreamt about visiting.
“It’s the jewel of the Kingdom, it’s the place of the Al-Saud family, who created this country.
“I used to watch the videos and see the pictures and I want(ed) to visit the museums, like it was literally a dream, so much so that the first time I came I woke up super early — and I’m not a morning person — with excitement to go visit Diriyah,” he said.
The excitement of that visit, he recalled, meant he spent an entire day wandering around and taking in the depth of history and captivating surroundings.
