RIYADH: Sustainable tourism has become a key measure of Saudi Arabia’s transformation, as the Kingdom seeks to balance economic growth with cultural preservation and environmental sustainability.
Speaking to Arab News, a media partner at Athar Festival, Abdulrahman Al-Jefri, destination and live assets executive director at Diriyah Co., said global definitions of sustainability are changing.
“The world is shifting into a new definition for sustainability, where today we have very specific technologies called sustainable tourism,” he said.
“Sustainable tourism is not just preserving the world for the younger generation, the next generation, it’s actually recreating the asset that has been loose, lost or consumed.”
Al-Jefri said tourism has one of the highest environmental impacts due to its carbon footprint and waste across the value chain.
He added that Diriyah’s approach emphasizes walkability, traditional design and landscape protection to reduce that impact.
“We are mandated to preserve the greenery that we have had for 2,000 years in Wadi Hanifa,” he said. “Today, we’re preserving all trees and actually planting more than 1 million trees in our destination. And the architecture methodology, which is mud brick, is a breathable material and low-rise. It’s also a promoter for these kind of sustainable tools.”
Al-Jefri said the Kingdom’s growing tourism sector is also creating new opportunities for young Saudis, and expanding destinations beyond religious tourism.
He added that the tourism sector is now a key pillar of the national plan to diversify income sources.
During a panel titled “Beyond Moments: Transforming Tourism Experiences into Legacies in the Middle East,” Melanie De Souza, destination marketing executive director at the Royal Commission for AlUla, said travel expectations are shifting globally.
She added that people are looking for meaning and “deep cultural immersion and connection.
“I think, increasingly, the customer of today is making decisions based on their own values,” she added. “What is really resonating with customers is this very serious responsibility we feel, to protect and preserve the heritage we have inherited, to really restore our landscapes and breathe wild with the ultimate hope.”
Wadha Al-Nafjan, senior visitor services manager at the King Salman Park Foundation, said visitor experiences should move beyond services to foster emotional connection.
“(It can be done) by designing emotional connection to a place through active participation,” she said.
She added that destinations must continuously evolve to keep visitors engaged and that lasting value in tourism comes from how projects improve people’s lives.
“Moments create attention but I think legacies are built when you design with the intention of improving people’s lives,” Al-Nafjan said.
