KSA’s 2030 vision was at the heart of a standing-room-only presentation on day one of the World Travel Market in London by Fahd Hamidaddin, CEO, Saudi Tourism Authority.
The travel leader highlighted the huge investment opportunities in Saudi and the continual steps they are taking to enable trade to maximise those opportunities. Saudi is committed to a transformation which will reshape its society, and tourism sits at the heart of this, with current and future technologies and innovations being used to bring to life the vision of a more resilient, inclusive, and sustainable sector.
Here are the key takeaways from his presentation:
- Ambitious Growth Targets: Saudi Arabia aims to attract 150 million visits by 2030, surpassing its original target, with an emphasis on diversifying tourism beyond just religious visits to include business, leisure, and familial tourism.
- Rapid Development: The country is experiencing a boom in hospitality infrastructure, with significant investments leading to thousands of new hotel rooms and the planning of large-scale Giga projects.
- Sustainable Tourism: A foundational principle for the Kingdom’s tourism industry is sustainability, demonstrated through initiatives like rewilding species, using renewable energy, and setting aside land as natural reserves.
- Digital Innovation: Introduction of “The Saudi Expert” and “the marketplace” platforms to aid partners in accessing information, streamlining booking processes, and selling travel experiences more effectively.
- Cultural and Environmental Preservation: Initiatives like the sustainable development of AlUla and the conservation of the Red Sea coastline highlight a commitment to protecting natural and historical sites while fostering tourism.
- Diverse Climate Representation: Showcasing areas like Trojena in Neom, Saudi Arabia is challenging the desert stereotype by highlighting its varied terrain, including snowy mountains and temperate highlands.
- Economic and Social Benefits: The tourism drive is focused on creating job opportunities, especially for the youth, and driving socioeconomic growth, with an emphasis on gender equality and empowerment of women.
- Local Community Upliftment: Tourism is seen as a means to transform local communities by encouraging entrepreneurship and showcasing local experiences.
- Cultural Exchange and Openness: The tourism initiative aims to foster global connectivity and cultural exchange, combating prejudice and fostering a more open-minded global community.
- Innovative Infrastructure: Plans include renewable energy-powered airports and advancements in tourism infrastructure, aimed at improving the visitor experience.
- Hospitality and Engagement: Saudi Arabia is inviting the world to explore its culture and attractions with a promise of warm hospitality and inclusive, engaging experiences.
- World Events and Seasons: Riyadh’s busy calendar, featuring 11,000 events, is a strategic approach to attract visitors, indicating the vibrancy and global connectivity of Saudi’s capital.
- Economic Diversification: Aligned with “Vision 2030,” the tourism sector is a key player in reducing oil dependency, contributing to the broader national agenda of economic diversification.
- Focus on Partners and Profitability: Saudi Arabia is working to ensure profitability for tourism partners through strategic alliances and wholesale engagement, aiming to enhance profit margins.
These points highlight Saudi Arabia’s strategic approach to transforming its tourism sector into a thriving, sustainable, and inclusive part of the global community while fostering economic growth and preserving cultural and environmental integrity.
Following is a full transcript of Hamidaddin‘s presentation:
I’m very, very delighted and humbled to be speaking to you and tell you more about Saudi. First, I would like to say that I’m leaving Riyadh, the capital of Saudi at a time when it’s the busiest. As we speak, Riyadh has more events than any other city in the world. Not Vegas, and I’m sorry, not even London. We have 11,000 events happening in our calendar in Riyadh alone. So the winter season for us is the busiest season of all times. And when winter comes in Saudi, we actually have multiple seasons, and we use the term season to frame a calendar of events. During winter we have a Riyadh season and we have the Diriyah season, which is another destination, and the AlUla season and the Red Sea season and so on. We have so many seasons, and every season basically is nothing but an intense calendar of events. But I’m here with my team because we realise how important this meeting is, and it’s no surprise that we see this year, WTM is hitting the record highest number of attendees. We see that reflected as well in our industry globally. 95% of our recovery is expected by the end of this year. Now many countries, including Saudi, have way past recovery, but collectively we see the recovery is coming back.
So we’re coming with the largest number of partners and delegation. When we started, we came with 20 destinations and partners from Saudi. That was the first time we participated. This year we come with 75. So what I’ll do today is I’ll tell you how this all started. And right from there, I want to talk about our vision – “Vision 2013”. Some of you may have heard of it. It’s a national transformation agenda. Now. Many of you may not know that Saudi is probably the capital of youth in the region. More than 60% of our population is below 30. With that comes the biggest threat… socioeconomic threat, and that is unemployment. Our young leadership, the crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, realised that we need to diversify our economy and we need to focus on new engines of growth that offer new jobs. And that’s not easy, especially at a time where technology is stealing jobs from all sectors. And if you look at the WTTC report that came back five years ago, talking about employment, they said tourism contributed to one of every five new jobs. That’s six years ago. In 25, their projection is that one of every four new jobs will come from tourism. So we looked at all the sectors that we call human-led sectors: sports, fashion, culture, music and tourism. And they all offer new jobs and not just jobs, but expand the opportunities for passions, for talents and creativity of where the demand with the youth is at its highest.
To us, vision 2030 is opportunity on steroids. I’m a father of two girls, and I can tell you that my 14-year-old girl, Sara. I mean, actually, I was just telling this story and this is not staged or anything. I was just telling this story to my colleagues. I said, her birthday is coming in a couple of days. And I was telling her, what do you want to do? Do you want to go to Harvard? Probably get you into an orientation tour. She said, but do you really want me to leave Saudi At this time, I don’t think I’m going to have that opportunity. Well, it’s arguable, but this is the language that I’m having with my daughter. I wish my sisters had the same opportunity back in the days. Saudi to the Saudis is a very different world, and it’s a very different home. Much more colourful, much more rewarding. And the opportunity is as high and as big as the limit of our imagination. And I truly believe that while many democracies around the world talk about the power of representation, we see challenges today in the in the representation of generations. In Saudi, I can’t tell you how evident it is, but I just having a leader who is who took the reins before even 35 years of age. The ambition, the hope, the openness is now handed over… and it’s a steering wheel. And I’m not talking about the steering wheel, you know, hand it over to women before men. And we are taking this to where we want to take it.
The beauty about tourism… for us, it creates opportunities, jobs and more importantly, it is expected to be our greatest bridge with the world: economically, socially and culturally as well. Maybe I said this in the opening today. Mark Twain says tourism is fatal for prejudice. It is true. In Saudi, just a month ago, the Minister Ahmed al-Khatib, Minister of Tourism with the Secretary General of the UNWTO, they launched the first global tourism initiative of its kind. Tourism opens minds. And in that initiative, the idea was simply to say that at the time of divide, at the time of greatest prejudice, whether that divide is social, economic or political, we need to bring the power of good in tourism back. And that’s UNWTO’s job. And we are just a catalyst as a hosting country of that annual gathering. And what we did is we simply supported this agenda where we are advocating for people to visit unknown destinations. And I don’t mean unknown destinations as in unknown countries, but even unknown cities. And the statistics say that 90% of travellers go to only 10% of the surface of the planet. So even in the UK, 80% come to London only. It’s even more aggravated in countries like France, so even those top most visited destinations or countries have so much more to give that is authentic, original, that people need to be open to, to visit. And it’s our job to make that possible, convenient and inspiring. It not only addresses overtourism, but it also disseminates wealth to these destinations. And it offers what is most authentic and true about these places, about those people that I’m positive, and I’m sure you are too, that travellers are seeking those through connections and experiences.
“…we always hear national agendas and visions. Why would this work?”
Since we started with a great belief in the importance of tourism, we’ve been growing at a pace like no other. Today, we are the fastest growing destination. And some people may say, well, you’re starting from a low base. Let me tell you that we set our target in 2016 to hit 100 million visits by 2030. I’m very hopeful with our partners here that we will be close this year, to hitting the 100 million. And the Crown Prince has raised that to 150 by 2030. And some people say, “Yeah, we always hear national agendas and visions. Why would this work?” And my answer is simple is I didn’t think it was going to work until I saw the numbers and I saw it year after year. And today I’m actually held accountable to participate with my colleagues, to take this target, to deliver on the target that is raised to 150 (eds: million). So. With that growth, we’ve seen a surge in number of visits across all travel purposes. It’s not just religious, but also business and then MICE, leisure, visiting friends and families and so on. In ’22, we introduced 12,000 rooms and by 25, we will add additional 43,000 rooms. $100 billion has been deployed in the development so far, and with a total investment of $800 billion by 2030. Now, with that size of investment comes a big size of responsibility too.
And what I mean by that, we’re building Giga projects and the Giga projects – some of them you see here on the screen between the Red sea, NEOM , Diriyah, and even building new ships for cruise lines on the Red Sea. But these Giga projects to us are also giga responsibilities. I was I was asked earlier today, how will you contribute to change? And my answer was, we’re so blessed to have a blueprint and a green field to design and build for a change, rather than change and improve what’s there. So these Giga projects are giga responsibilities, because we need to make sure we learn from all those that have been in this industry before us, and we learn and mitigate all those challenges and innovate where the future travellers are going to be the most rewarding. And what I mean by travellers that are most rewarding, I think that sustainable tourism is a big word that we always hear.
A lot of people are talking about sustainability. Not many are doing enough about it. Not because of ill-intention, not because of not lack of seriousness. It just comes at a very big-ticket price. But for us, because we are a blueprint and a greenfield building from scratch, we have no excuse but to build trust. And the sustainability goes from the very, very basic when we start with our people. The visited before the visitor, to our culture, to our authentic offering of our music, fashion, art and customs (because that’s what people are looking for – authenticity today) to our wildlife and nature. While we commit to rewilding 21 species and 30% of our total land for reserves, to reimagining destinations that are not only minimising damage, but even improving the place they’re built on and that is regenerative tourism. You may say nice talk, but I encourage you to walk across that bridge and see for yourself.
The Red Sea has opened its first resort November 1st. Two more resorts are opening early next year in January, and their theme is “no compromise”. And not just only making sure that all energy is renewable energy, but actually planting more mangroves, preserving, investing in ocean areas for marine life protection. And that’s what I mean by regenerative tourism – the rewilding aspect, the commitment to building trees and making this place better than it was – for the people, for nature, for wildlife and for future visitors is what we mean by sustainability. So I talked about the investment, but let me tell you more about how this investment is translating into opportunities. I’m sure you know something like this. I mean, the investment at this scale must have attracted all investors and the usual suspects from the Hilton group to Accor group. And even within Accor, you see Ennismore… all the new concepts, from boutique hotels to new, innovative hospitality solutions are all in Saudi, from Amman to new cruises. But that’s expected. Follow the growth, follow the money and the world is joining. But what is interesting is how we’re creating new opportunities to reimagine tourism across the total value chain.
Latifah on the screen is a Saudi lady that I met five years ago, and she had the opportunities to take an international assignment with one of her potential employers. And she said I don’t think I’m going to go. Now with tourism, I think don’t want to do whatever I wanted to do somewhere else. I’m going to do it at home. So she started the business and I remember the line was “the world travellers are looking for experiences where they can live like a local”. So live or “live like a local” was the theme that she created her business on. It’s basically Airbnb experiences and accommodation. However, it’s through homes, through farms, through secondary homes and all sorts of accommodation and experiential offering that are within family homes and within Saudi through cultural experiences in villages, in farms and near to beautiful dunes. And in fact, the past five years, she has become the largest booking platform, and she has hired hundreds, out of which most are women. And maybe because I’m a father of two girls, I’m very proud to say that the Saudi Tourism Authority is the government authority that has the highest ratio of women in all governments, nearly hitting the 50%. And we’re committing to tip that break-point. So to what I tell people is that there are so many Latifah’s you might not know, but now are engaged. And if you have a doubt whether your business will find a demand, will find an opportunity in Saudi, I can tell you very comfortably the answer is absolutely yes.
What you see in front of you is like the winter wonderland in Jeddah. Now we’ve been listening to our partners, and one of the things they told us is that you have so many events, we just don’t know how to get them, how to book them, how to sell them. So today, we made sure that we are responding to our partners with the top three asks. Number one is a digital platform called “The Saudi Expert”. And that’s where you can see the full offering, from events to destinations to accommodation… all of it. And you can get to learn and get trained online even without visiting before you do, so you can best sell and package and develop itineraries. The second thing is we developed “the marketplace” and with API integration. You can book it all. The third we heard was the profit margins are not as good. So what we make sure we come this year with is the full complete list of partners. And maybe I would like to stress on the importance of wholesalers, because the wholesalers are where we get to pass the profit margin maximum to you. In front of you is one example of how we reimagine the destination.
(Pointing to slide) This is Trojena in Neom that is expected to host the Olympic Asian Cup in 27. I don’t think many of you would assume you can ski in Saudi, that there is no in Saudi. But what many don’t know is that Saudi has rain nearly all year long. It depends on which part of Saudi Arabia. So in the in the north you have mountains with snow, in winter. In the south, you have the green Arabian highlands and when the whole region is boiling hot, the Arabian Highlands have the best breeze you can get. And we are getting people that it’s like summer season, people may think, oh, it’s way too hot in Saudi. In reality, that’s where the whole region goes – to the south of Saudi. And with the great Arabian Red Sea, with a coastline that stretches over 1700km, we are building a whole new offering of of sun and sea. And the sea itself has hundreds of islands that are still untouched, pristine beaches and beautiful, second to none corals for divers. And I say second to none, I quote National Geographic. So we’re trying to make sure that whatever we do on the Red Sea preserves it before it offers it to to travellers.
“…people may think, oh, it’s way too hot in Saudi. In reality, that’s where the whole region goes – to the south of Saudi”
This is one of the art installations that one of the global artists put in AlUla you might have seen at this booth. It’s probably the most well-kept natural wonder that is now open to the world. So many of you know Petra. I hope my fellow Jordanians don’t dislike what I say, but I think this is somehow Petra on a bigger scale. The Nabataeans 7000 years ago lived in Petra. But then they moved and died in AlUla. They left us all those tunes and all those assets and archaeological sites for people to visit. So many pyramids, many Petras, in one place that is now well-kept and opened in a very, very luxurious offering. But luxury is not gold and bling bling. Luxury is everything we thought we said about sustainability, from being true to the place to creating opportunities for impact. I think AlUla has a great offer to delight those travellers. That being said. I can only tell you that our commitment will only improve and grow and showcase more innovations every year.
Technology today allows us to to reimagine things like never before. When we very first started, my first job was to launch the e-visa platform. Me personally, that was the first project four and a half years ago. I’m very pleased that the e-visa platform of Saudi is rated the fastest and the best visa platform in the world. But that’s just one. 100 other innovations are in place that go to reimagining, you know, all the destinations and the new airports that are going to be fully renewable energy powered, even to that ugly luggage rack that doesn’t carry any bag, and it keeps flopping and toppling left and right. I hope you never see that. Innovation is technology reimagination and true, meaningful sustainability. I encourage you all to discover more about Saudi, and we will receive you with only open minds and hearts. And I hope I see you in our booth. I welcome you there anytime you wish. Thank you so much.
…
