Employment in the tourism sector rose 4% y-o-y in 4Q 2024 to 966.5k workers, according to Gastat’s latest report (pdf). Meanwhile, the total number of licensed tourism hospitality facilities rose 88.9% y-o-y during the same period to 4.4k, including 2.1k hotels and 2.3k serviced apartments.

As a share of the total workforce, employment in the tourism industry fell 0.3 percentage points y-o-y in the same period to 5.5%. Some 8.2% of private sector employees worked in tourism during the quarter, down 0.8 percentage points y-o-y.

Non-Saudis continue to dominate the sector: Some 242k Saudi employees made up 25% of the tourism workforce in 4Q 2024, while non-Saudi employees amounted to 724.5k, or 75% of the tourism workforce. Meanwhile, 838k males took on 86.7% of jobs in the industry, while females grabbed the remaining 128.6k jobs.

REMEMBER- The Kingdom will implement a three-phase Saudization plan for 41 private tourism professions, starting April 2026. Phase one will begin in April of next year.

ALSO- The hotel room occupancy rate fell 4.3 percentage points y-o-y to 56% during the quarter due to a rapid expansion in supply. Meanwhile, the occupancy rate for serviced apartments and other hospitality facilities reached 55.9%, up 0.5 percentage points y-o-y.

Stable stays: Hotel guests recorded an average stay length in 4Q 2024 similar to that of 4Q 2023 at 3.6 nights. Serviced apartments and other hospitality facilities reported an average stay length per guest of 2.1 nights, a decrease of 12.1% y-o-y.

IN OTHER TOURISM NEWS-

The Kingdom retained its spot as the second most popular destination for Middle East travelers in 1Q 2025, right after Egypt, according to a survey by travel booking platform Wego. The survey was based on user searches for flights and hotels from 1 January 2014 to 21 April 2025.

A regional view: Syria was very popular this quarter, rising 30 positions to land in the tenth spot. The rise coincides with the resumption of international flights to and from Damascus and Aleppo earlier this year. Kuwait came in at sixth place, followed by Turkey, Jordan, and Bangladesh.

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