Inside Saudi Arabia’s $800 Billion Travel Destination Transformation | Forbes

Saudi Arabia is on a massive building spree—creating private islands, luxury hotels, theme parks, cruise ports, and even a desert ski resort. The question remains: If they build it, who will come?<br /><br />It can be difficult to visualize the vastness of Saudi Arabia’s physical transformation. Some of the most notable ongoing projects—including Sindalah, a 7-star private island, and Trojena, an improbable desert ski resort—fall within NEOM, a $500-billion built-from-scratch region in northwest Saudi Arabia where the Kingdom is creating new cities, resorts and other developments. Bankrolled mainly by the Kingdom’s $700-billion Public Investment Fund (PIF), the idea for NEOM was born out of Vision 2030, Saudi Arabia’s grand plan to shake off its historic reliance on oil and diversify its economy, reinventing the country as a global tourism juggernaut.<br /><br />Euromonitor predicts that international tourists will spend $38 billion in 2030. But the total economic impact for Saudi Arabia will be far greater after adding in domestic travelers’ expenditures and the ripple effect of one million new tourism jobs. The World Travel & Tourism Council projects that, by 2032, Saudi Arabia’s tourism sector could contribute nearly $169 billion to its GDP, representing 17.1% of the total Saudi economy.<br /><br />00:00 Intro<br />00:24 New Cities, Resorts, and Hotels<br />02:05 Saudi Arabia’s Tourism Moonshot<br />03:09 Foreign Travelers in Saudi Arabia<br />04:39 Preparing For The Future<br /><br />Read the full story on Forbes:<br />https://www.forbes.com/sites/suzannerowankelleher/2024/01/29/inside-saudi-arabias-800-billion-tourism-moonshot-neom-sindalah-trojena-red-sea-global<br /><br />Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1<br /><br />Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:<br /><br />https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript<br /><br />Stay Connected<br />Forbes newsletters: https://newsletters.editorial.forbes.com<br />Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes<br />Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes<br />Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes<br />More From Forbes: http://forbes.com<br /><br />Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.