New data released by the General Authority for Statistics (GASTAT) underline the continued expansion and professionalisation of Saudi Arabia’s tourism and hospitality sector, even as occupancy and length-of-stay indicators begin to normalise following several years of accelerated growth.
According to the Tourism Establishments Statistics for the third quarter of 2025, hotel room occupancy across the Kingdom reached 49.1%, up 2.9 percentage points year-on-year compared to Q3 2024. This improvement highlights the resilience of hotel demand across major urban centres and emerging destinations, despite a rapidly increasing supply of licensed accommodation.
By contrast, occupancy levels for serviced apartments and other hospitality facilities stood at 57.4%, down slightly from 58.0% in Q3 2024. The marginal decline reflects a maturing market in which different accommodation formats are increasingly segmented by purpose of travel, length of stay and price sensitivity.
Supply growth accelerates at an unprecedented pace
One of the most striking indicators in the Q3 bulletin is the 40.6% year-on-year increase in licensed tourism hospitality establishments, which reached 5,622 facilities nationwide, compared with 3,998 in the same period last year.
This surge reflects the rapid rollout of new hospitality assets aligned with Saudi Arabia’s national tourism strategy, encompassing hotels, serviced apartments and alternative accommodation formats designed to support both leisure and business travel.
Serviced apartments and other hospitality facilities account for 52.6% of the total supply, with 2,955 licensed establishments, while hotels represent 47.4%, totalling 2,667 properties. For travel advisors and investors, this split highlights the Kingdom’s emphasis on diversified accommodation models capable of supporting different traveller profiles, from extended-stay business guests to domestic and regional leisure travellers.
Length of stay stabilises as the market matures
The bulletin also points to subtle but meaningful shifts in guest behaviour. The average length of stay in hotels during Q3 2025 stood at 4.1 nights, down marginally from 4.2 nights a year earlier. In serviced apartments and similar facilities, the average stay reached 2.1 nights, a slight decline of 0.2% year-on-year.
While modest, these changes suggest a market entering a phase of normalisation, with travel patterns becoming more structured as the destination moves from novelty-driven demand to repeat visitation, events-led travel and more defined itineraries.
For international advisors, this evolution reinforces the importance of experience-led programming and destination integration, rather than relying solely on extended stays.
Tourism employment continues to expand
Beyond accommodation metrics, the data confirm tourism’s growing role as a major employer within Saudi Arabia’s non-oil economy. Total employment in tourism-related activities reached approximately 1.01 million workers in Q3 2025, a 6.4% increase compared to the same period last year.
Saudi nationals accounted for 245,171 jobs, representing 24.3% of the tourism workforce, while non-Saudi employees made up 75.7%, or 764,520 workers. The figures reflect the dual reality of rapid sector expansion and ongoing localisation efforts, as the Kingdom continues to develop national talent pipelines for hospitality and tourism operations.
Gender participation remains uneven, with male workers representing 86.7% of the workforce and female participation at 13.3%. However, the continued growth in absolute employment numbers suggests scope for further diversification as training and inclusion initiatives scale up.
Implications for the travel trade
Taken together, the Q3 2025 statistics confirm that Saudi Arabia’s tourism sector is transitioning from rapid capacity build-out to a more balanced operational phase. Occupancy growth in hotels, stabilising lengths of stay and a sharply rising number of licensed establishments point to a market that is no longer experimental, but structurally embedded within the global tourism economy.
For high-end travel advisors and hospitality partners, the message is clear: Saudi Arabia is now a destination where supply, regulation and workforce development are advancing in parallel — creating a more predictable environment for product development, investment and long-term planning.
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