Riyadh, Saudi Arabia — Nearly SAR 133.3 billion ($35.54 billion) were spent in the first nine months of 2022 by about 73 million tourists — both domestic and inbound — who visited Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Tourism defines a tourist as every visitor (domestic, inbound or outbound) with an overnight stay in the place visited.
Argaam reported that domestic tourists constituted the largest percentage of total tourists during this period, representing about 86 percent or approximately 62.6 million tourists, while incoming tourists accounted for 14 percent of the total tourists, at about 10.5 million tourists.
Saudi Arabia ranked second on the list of the fastest-growing tourism destinations in the first quarter of 2023, according to the latest data from World Tourism Organization (WTO).
The kingdom also became 13th globally, advancing by 12 places on the WTO index, as one of the top countries receiving international tourists in 2022, compared to 25th place in 2019.
The number of international tourists who visited the kingdom, for all travel purposes, hit 16.6 million in 2022, WTO reported.
The kingdom also advanced 16 places in the international tourism revenue index, achieving 11th place in 2022, compared to 27th place in 2019 globally, according to the World Tourism Barometer report for May 2023 issued by the WTO.
Saudi Arabia also launched a new national carrier, Riyadh Air, in a bid to remake once closed-off kingdom as a business and tourism magnet.
The STA targets 55 million and 45 million international and domestic visitations, respectively by 2030.
Contribution to the Kingdom’s gross domestic product (GDP) reached 5.3 percent, with 836,000 new jobs created.
100 million target
Saudi Arabia’s Tourism minister Khateeb has said that the of the 100 million targeted visitors for 2030, 30 million are meant to come from abroad while the rest would be people travelling within Saudi Arabia.
Some 30 million visits will be religious trips by both residents and foreigners, largely to Makkah and Madinah, Islam’s two holiest sites.
