Saudi Arabia is getting another Amaala wellness resort this month

A new wellness resort is set to open at Amaala before Saudi National Day on 23 September, becoming the first property Singapore-based Jayasom has operated anywhere in the world. This is part of a cluster of health-focused resorts the Kingdom is adding to its Red Sea tourism market. The property is in the final stages of licensing after about five years of construction, co-founder and CEO Karen Campbell told EnterpriseAM on Wednesday. PIF-owned Red Sea Global (RSG) developed and owns it. Jayasom operates and manages it.

Why Saudi first? Jayasom was founded about 11 years ago and had expected a project in Ibiza, Spain, to be its first operating property. “Saudi was faster,” Campbell said. “They have a lot of motivation and a lot of resources.”

So what is Jayasom? Unlike a conventional hotel where spa and fitness facilities sit alongside the core hospitality business, Jayasom is built around guests staying for a specific health or lifestyle objective. The Amaala property will have 153 rooms and 24 residences, split roughly between adult and family areas, with around 8k sqm dedicated to core wellness facilities, including at least 80 consultation and treatment spaces. “This is not a regular hotel,” Campbell said. “There’s a wellness responsibility.”

The “programs” are personalized stays built around a guest’s objective. Someone coming to lose weight might get a calorie-controlled nutrition plan alongside exercise and treatments; a guest focused on fitness could get a higher-protein diet and training program; someone dealing with stress or poor sleep could have their meals, treatments, and daily schedule structured around improving rest. Physiotherapy, fitness, spa treatments, and other services can then be added depending on the individual. Jayasom uses seven base programs, but Campbell said they aren’t fixed packages. “In a way, it’s infinite,” she said. “Each one is just a starting place.”

There’s a medical component too. Part of the resort is being licensed through the Health Ministry, allowing services such as blood testing under medical supervision. The medical team will be in-house, Campbell said, while laboratory work can be handled by contracted hospitals. She described the broader approach as lifestyle medicine rather than treatment for illness. “How do you control your stress? How do you be more calm? How do you exercise well? How do you give up smoking?” she said.

Some of it draws on local medical history. Jayasom plans to incorporate herbal, dietary, and lifestyle practices associated with Ibn Sina, the Persian physician and philosopher known in the West as Avicenna, whose medical writings were used for centuries, alongside contemporary wellness practices. The aim, Campbell said, is to avoid importing the same model used elsewhere. “We’re in Saudi, and Saudi has tradition, and Saudi has history, and Saudi has knowledge,” she said.

Around half the resort will be dedicated to families, with facilities and programs for children as well as adults, focused on nutrition, physical activity, and building healthier habits earlier in life. “Why wait until you’re 30 or 40 to begin coming and understanding about health?” Campbell said.

Why Red Sea Global picked an operator with no track record: The Amaala resort is both Jayasom’s Saudi debut and its first operating property anywhere, despite the company being founded more than a decade ago. When asked why Red Sea Global would pick a relatively untested operator when established wellness brands were available, Campbell said that was partly the point. “I think that RSG is very visionary,” she said. “They have courage to go after what they’re looking for, and they were looking for things that are different, not just things that are the same.” Her pitch, she said, was the integrated model spanning nutrition, fitness, medical supervision, and other services rather than a conventional hotel with a wellness component: “The ability to come and to say to somebody, ‘I need to get my life back on track, where do I start?’”

For Jayasom, the Red Sea location wasn’t an automatic yes. Campbell said Jayasom initially debated whether developing a new property on an undeveloped coral coastline fit its approach. Red Sea Global’s environmental policies and Amaala’s renewable-energy model helped convince the company to proceed. “Wellness has to go hand-in-hand with sustainability,” she said. “If you’re screwing up the planet, you cannot also at the same time be well.”

What’s next: Spain is expected to follow, with Jayasom working on a farm-based wellness destination in Ibiza, and projects are underway in Japan and India. “We’re not intending to be big,” Campbell said. “What is really important to us is quality, not just size.”

Zoom out: Amaala, a Red Sea Global tourism development on Saudi Arabia’s northwestern coast, will have nine resorts and around 1.6k keys when complete. Jayasom follows Six Senses Amaala’s July opening, putting two wellness-focused resorts into operation within two months. Four Seasons, Rosewood, Nammos, and Equinox have already opened this year. Red Sea Global plans to have eight resorts running at Amaala during 2026, and Jayasom’s opening would bring the total to seven.