{"id":104365,"date":"2026-01-20T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/2026\/01\/20\/saudi-is-gunning-for-holidaymakers-over-pilgrims-in-its-tourism-revamp\/"},"modified":"2026-01-20T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T00:00:00","slug":"saudi-is-gunning-for-holidaymakers-over-pilgrims-in-its-tourism-revamp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/2026\/01\/20\/saudi-is-gunning-for-holidaymakers-over-pilgrims-in-its-tourism-revamp\/","title":{"rendered":"Saudi is gunning for holidaymakers over pilgrims in its tourism revamp"},"content":{"rendered":"

Saudi Arabia is working to diversify its tourism industry through leisure offerings, with<\/strong> an eye to attract repeat holiday visitors <\/strong>with luxury gigaprojects, Tourism Minister Ahmed Al Khateeb told Bloomberg. The strategy works towards a goal of 150 mn annual visitors, including 50 mn international travelers, by 2030, the minister said (watch, runtime: 11:36<\/a>).<\/p>\n

The Mishal Husain Show episode highlighted the structural hurdles Saudi Arabia faces in<\/strong> competing with regional<\/strong> hubs like Dubai. <\/strong>Steven Cook, senior fellow for MENA studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, argues that while the Kingdom has a vibrant commercial economy, it still lacks the deep-seated institutions of a true market economy. He warned that investors operating outside the hydrocarbon sector need \u201crational investment laws,\u201d not just commercial prospects.<\/p>\n

(** Tap or click the headline above to read this story with all of the links<\/strong> to our background and outside sources.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Luxury giga-projects anchor a strategy to attract repeat holidaymakers, but some market reforms are still needed<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":104366,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"_primary_brand":0,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2561],"tags":[10,509,229,7],"brand":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"class_list":["post-104365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-saudi-in-the-news","tag-enterpriseam-ksa","tag-gigaprojects","tag-saudi-in-the-news","tag-tourism","wpautop","entry"],"acf":{"mongo_id":"c814855a-4847-423a-9bb4-a7683d1a6a91","order":"7","is_powered_by":false,"story_type":"1","photo_url":"https:\/\/ent.news\/2026\/1\/650.jpg","photo_position":"above","homepage_title":"","full_issue_title":"Saudi Arabia leans into leisure tourism to diversify visitor base","related_issue":[104354],"teaser":"Luxury giga-projects anchor a strategy to attract repeat holidaymakers, but some market reforms are still needed"},"yoast_head":"\nSaudi is gunning for holidaymakers over pilgrims in its tourism revamp - 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