Hospitality Awards 2025 celebrate visionaries shaping future of Saudi hospitality

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Updated 16 June 2025
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Hospitality Awards 2025 celebrate visionaries shaping future of Saudi hospitality

The Hospitality Network has unveiled the winners of The Hospitality Awards 2025, honoring excellence across 11 categories that spotlight innovation, leadership, and alignment with Saudi Vision 2030. The awards ceremony, held as part of The 2025 KSA Stakeholder Gathering, brought together senior decision-makers from the hotel and real estate industries at this influential conference.

Winners of the 2025 Hospitality Awards are:

  1. City of Tomorrow: Mohammed Bin Salman Nonprofit City 
  2. Cultural and Architectural Preservation: AlUla Development Company 
  3. Development Leader: Imran Changezi, Diriyah Company 
  4. Groundbreaking Project: Desert Rock Resort 
  5. Heritage Conservation Project: Bab Samhan, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Diriyah
  6. Iconic Project: Shebara Resort 
  7. Innovator of the Year: King Abdullah Financial District 
  8. Luxury Hospitality Pioneer: Desert Rock Resort 
  9. National Hospitality Champion: Fabien Toscano, AlUla Development Company
  10. Sustainability Champion: King Abdullah Financial District 
  11. Urban Living Excellence: Rua Al-Madinah Holding 

A celebration of vision and progress

“These awards are milestones on a much larger journey, powered by purpose, passion, and vision,” said Martina Bjorkenor, managing director, The Hospitality Network. The evening celebrated the drive of Saudi Arabia’s hospitality and real estate leaders to innovate while preserving heritage and advancing sustainability.

Beyond awards, creating opportunity through connection

Held as part of the 2025 KSA Stakeholder Gathering, The Hospitality Awards took place during a high-impact event that brought together over 500 senior leaders from Saudi Arabia’s hospitality and real estate sectors. 

The program featured keynote speeches from Joseph Bradley of TONOMUS, who explored the future of AI in hospitality, and Philip Wooller of STR, a CoStar Group Company, who shared key insights on regional hotel performance. 

Attendees participated in expert-led panel discussions covering technology, sustainability, development as well as design and architecture. Together, these elements created a strategic platform to accelerate partnerships, create new opportunities, and drive forward Vision 2030’s ambitious hospitality goals.

What’s next?

The momentum continues at The 2025 EMEA Stakeholder Conference in Dubai this November, where The Hospitality Network will unite the industry’s most influential leaders shaping the future of hospitality and real estate across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

This exclusive gathering brings together owners, operators, giga-developers, consultants, and leading suppliers who are key decision-makers driving hundreds of hotel and real estate projects in the region.


‘Wealth Grows Here’: Aljazira Bank launches new brand identity

Updated 23 December 2025
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‘Wealth Grows Here’: Aljazira Bank launches new brand identity

Aljazira Bank announced the launch of its new brand identity under the slogan “Wealth Grows Here,” marking a natural evolution in a growth journey spanning more than five decades. Over the years, successive phases of transformation have shaped the bank into what it is today, with the new identity serving as the culmination of a strategic chapter that strengthened the bank’s role within the Saudi banking sector.

As part of this milestone, the new brand launch also extended to Aljazira Capital, the bank’s investment arm, reflecting a unified vision and strategic alignment across the group. The updated identity of Aljazira Capital underscored its evolution as a specialized investment and wealth management institution, focused on delivering carefully structured investment solutions and strengthening its role as a trusted partner in building and growing long-term investment portfolios, fully aligned with the bank’s broader direction.

The announcement also included the launch of the new identity for Fawri, aligning it with the bank’s updated brand and reflecting its commitment to delivering reliable and seamless financial transfers within an advanced and integrated financial ecosystem.

Naif bin Abdulkareem Al-Abdulkareem, CEO and managing director of Aljazira Bank, said: “The new brand identity goes beyond a visual change; it is a true reflection of what the bank has become today. Since the strategic refresh in 2023, we have restructured how we operate, aligned our business lines around a shared objective, and strengthened execution. The progress we see today, in service quality and speed of delivery — confirms that we are moving in the right direction.”

The new identity reflects the outcomes of the bank’s 2023 strategic transformation, a pivotal milestone in its journey. This phase focused on developing an integrated banking ecosystem with a stronger emphasis on individual wealth management, supported by a more agile and efficient operating model led by digital channels. It balanced sustainable growth with strengthening the corporate portfolio, accelerating investment in digital infrastructure and human capital, and enhancing operational efficiency.

Since its establishment, Aljazira Bank has progressed through successive stages of growth, evolving from a traditional bank into a more innovative and specialized financial institution. Today, it places wealth management at the core of its proposition, offering a banking experience built on long-term relationships and a deep understanding of clients’ financial aspirations. In parallel, the bank has continued to reinforce its role as a trusted partner to the business sector, serving large corporates as well as small and medium-sized enterprises through solutions that support growth, sustainability, and the Kingdom’s broader economic development goals.

At the heart of this direction stands the bank’s new slogan, “Wealth Grows Here,” which captures its role as a key partner in building and preserving wealth for individuals and businesses alike, creating sustainable value beyond the delivery of traditional banking services.