Amlak Riyadh

The Kingdom is placing a lot of hope on religious tourism, which is the cornerstone of the Saudi tourism industry, which the Kingdom seeks to develop to achieve economic diversification and move away from total dependence on oil and its derivatives, and statistics indicate that the religious tourism sector in Saudi Arabia can generate 7 billion dollars in annual revenues, while official expectations indicate that the Saudi tourism sector contributes about 2.7 % to the domestic product and thus creates more than a million jobs under government funding of 2.4 billion riyals.

The report of Al Mazaya Holding Company said that the Kingdom places a lot of hope on religious tourism, which is the cornerstone of the Saudi tourism industry that the Kingdom seeks to develop to achieve economic diversification and move away from total dependence on oil and its derivatives. The report monitored the maturity of Saudi plans to develop the tourism sector in the Kingdom, taking advantage of the geographical diversity and multiple tourist attractions enjoyed by the major Arab economies, which are expected to achieve GDP growth of up to 4 % during the current year against the contraction of neighboring economies and stopping their growth as a result of the global financial crisis and economic slowdown around the world.
In light of this optimistic outlook, the number of Arab and foreign tourists coming to visit religious sites in Mecca and Medina is expected to increase by 6.5 percent annually, up from about 12 million pilgrims and Umrah pilgrims who came to Saudi Arabia in 2009 to more than 15 million pilgrims and Umrah pilgrims in 2013.

The report pointed out that the large investments allocated by the Saudi government to expand the Makkah Mosque and the addition of dozens of development projects in Makkah including hotels, facilities, roads and bridges in and around the Haram will enhance the Kingdom's ability to absorb the increasing numbers of pilgrims and pilgrims from around the world, as investments in religious tourism and in hotels, facilities and hospitality establishments in Makkah and Medina are witnessing significant development in the recent period.
In the context, economists and analysts believe that the religious tourism sector in religious places is likely to achieve impressive annual growth, especially in light of the expansions announced by the competent authorities in Saudi Arabia, and the significant increase in the number of pilgrims annually. The report said that religious tourism constitutes about half of the total tourism sector in the Kingdom, while domestic tourism (tourism of Saudi families from different regions of the Kingdom) comes in second place in terms of importance, so the General Authority for Tourism is developing comprehensive plans to provide tourism facilities and facilities that support this type of tourism at a time when the Saudi tourist is one of the highest spenders on tourism compared to his counterparts in the Middle East and North Africa region. The report continued that the construction of the various transportation network of roads, railways and low-cost aviation will enhance the development of the tourism sector in Saudi Arabia in the coming years, especially with a change in the trends of Gulf tourists towards limiting tourism to neighboring countries compared to previous years, as security, political, health and economic factors have created new trends in Arab and Gulf tourism, and new destinations have recently emerged that attract a large number of tourists from all countries of the world, especially the GCC countries, who are among the highest spending tourists on the tours they take.