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Tourism as a Rising Industry in Saudi Arabia
The Kingdom has started many initiatives to promote tourism. “Aishath Rimna, marketing
and PR executive of Maldives Tourism Corporation, said about one million tourists are expected
to visit the country by the year-end." Saudi Arabia is a promising market for us. We are
receiving more tourists from the Kingdom than any other Middle East country", she stated in a
recent article on the issue. This is an enormous growth rate over the past ten years, and the
Kingdom is ready to continue to invest in tourism (Abdurabb, 2012).
Some of the major advantages to inviting tourism into Saudi Arabia, aside from helping
the image of the country. Bringing foreign exchange earnings into the economy is certainly a
plus for expanding tourism in Saudi. "During the first fiscal quarter in 2012, Maldives recorded
a total of 4,344 arrivals from the Middle East, marking an unparalleled growth of 77.8 percent
compared to the same period last year. In particular it is important to note the exceptional
growth from the Saudi market” (Abdurabb, 2012). The Saudi government feels this is due to the
developing hotel chains in the country and this has been one of their major investments in the
industry.
Saudi Arabia has moved to the lead so quickly that its tourism industry has immense
potential. Deregulating the strong rules around getting a Visa to make it easier for tourism
would be beneficial to the country. There is an uneven social element within the country, and
this needs to be stabilized to attract people from the West. The BMI is strong; however, there is a
problem with the image of unstable factions that would advert tourism if this is not handled by
the monarchy. Stabilization and strong advertising will help tourism in Saudi with this
problem. Tourist arrivals are predicted to increase in the next year according to many. With
Medina and Mecca in Saudi Arabia, millions come to the country to visit yearly for religious
purposes. This makes the country one of the most highly visited sites on the globe.
BMI's Saudi Arabia Tourism Report (2012) suggests that "The hospitality sector looks set to
grow in tandem with visitor arrivals. BMI predicts that there will be about 424,000 hotel rooms
in Saudi Arabia by 2016, up from a predictable 317,000 in 2012. In 2009, a number of
international chains opened their first hotels in the market, including Rotana, Hyatt Hotels &
Resorts, Accor and Raffles Hotels & Resorts. Those already present in the market are increasing,
with InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), al-Hokair Group, Starwood Hotels & Resorts,
Rezidor Hotel Group and Wyndham Hotel Group opening new hotels in 2010 and 2011”
(
Research and Markets: Saudi Arabia Tourism Report Q2
, 2012).
An expatriate tourism market exists within the monarchy which the government is
interested in developing. High-earning foreign professional and managerial expatriates
working in the Kingdom often spend much of their leave in either neighbouring Arab states,
such as Egypt, Bahrain or Jordan, as well as others. The government hopes to encourage this
market to explore more of the Kingdom of Saudi by providing suitable accommodation facilities.
“For example, the Holiday Inn group is planning two new hotels in Saudi Arabia to exploit this
market, in addition to the six it already operates” (Oxford Analytica, 1997: 1)
Saudi Arabia is planning to open tourism in both the private sector, and throughout the
Kingdom, and has long range plans for its tourism industry. "A long term vision for the
country's hospitality sector estimates that the number of visitors will nearly double from 47
million in 2008 to 88 million by 2020, while the number of hotel rooms would rise from 117,097
to 254,310 apartment units would increase from 101,544 to 185,853 - and employment in the
industry is set to grow from 1.1 million to 1.5 million” (
Tourism Master Plan for Saudi Arabia
,
2009, p. 1). These are enormous statistics in terms of growth, and the apartment units are a huge
addition for those who want to visit Saudi and stay for periods of time.
Journal of Business and Retail Management Research (JBRMR) Vol. 8 Issue 2
April 2014
www.jbrmr.com A Journal of the Academy of Business and Retail Management (ABRM)
67
How the monarchy views tourism in Saudi is a key to its growth as the support of the
royal family will determine the direction that tourism takes in the next few years, as well as how
much funding it will receive from the government. “I think the numbers will be even more than
these (prudent) estimates" HRH Prince Sultan said. "Tourism touches every service provider -
for example, the government has approved bank financing to process loans to fund heritage
projects (for small and medium size enterprises), and we will announce a national crafts and
heritage industry plan to incubate projects in this sector" (Tourism Master Plan for Saudi Arabia,
2009, p. 3). This support by the monarchy is a strong indicator for tourism in the country as this
is where the major decisions are made in terms of support. The kingdom brought its number one
company, Saudi Aramco, to great success and it is now one of the leading oil industries globally.
When the monarchy backs an industry in Saudi, as the Prince Sultan is doing, it almost
guarantees some success for that industry.
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