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Jon Gambrell, Associated Press
The precautionary measure to limit entry to Islam’s holiest sites is a wise move on Saudi Arabia’s part, but this would mean a major hit on Umrah travel agents worldwide.
1 month ago
Vivian Nereim, Bloomberg
Saudi Arabia, hungry for tourism dollars, has several mega-projects underway. Diriyah Gate, a UNESCO site that’s the ancestral home of the Saudi ruling family and will feature 20 hotels, eight museums and a golf course, is one of them. Global chains are taking a close look.
5 months ago
Seera Group + Skift
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is opening its borders and taking many steps to grow its tourism industry. This report will provide an inside look at the current trends and potential of domestic, inbound, and outbound travel in the Kingdom.
5 months ago
Abeer Abu Omar and Sarah Algethami, Bloomberg
Alongside its planned tourism boom, Saudi Arabia will need a new workforce. And for the first time, it's the Saudis themselves who seem to be warming to the idea of working in the service and hospitality sector.
6 months ago
Patrick Whyte, Skift
A slowdown is coming — we don't know when and it probably won't be at the same scale as 2008 — but it will happen. A bullish IHG claims its business and its model makes it well-placed to ride out the storm.
6 months ago
Raini Hamdi, Skift
Since Saudi Arabia introduced a new tourist visa on Sept. 28, the focus has been on what it means for non-Muslim leisure travelers. But the new visa holds a bigger significance for the huge Muslim travel market in Asia and elsewhere.
6 months ago
Raini Hamdi, Skift
Businesses can’t resist the opportunities that a new frontier brings. In the case of Saudi Arabia, however, the gamble they take is whether tourists will actually go, given the kingdom’s poor image. The adage "build and they will come" is being tested.
6 months ago
Patrick Donahue, Bloomberg
Many have wondered how Saudi Arabia will lure tourists given its strict local customs. It appears the strategy is simple: —have different rules for tourists than the Kingdom does for locals.
6 months ago
Raini Hamdi, Skift
Beyond the glare of overdevelopment, Asia’s resorts want to be a pioneer of the sustainability movement. Here’s how they say they will do that.
6 months ago
Rosie Spinks, Skift
On World Tourism Day, it's worth pointing out that politics and tourism don't exist independently of each other — they collide.
6 months ago
Sarah Algethami, Zainab Fattah and Vivian Nereim, Bloomberg
Saudi Arabia has taken so few real steps to open to the outside world that even small steps like this seem like big ones.
6 months ago
Rosie Spinks, Skift
Saudi Arabia certainly put a lot of thought and money into its latest promotional pitch ahead of a rumored e-visa scheme. But it takes more than drone shots to kick off a successful tourism marketing strategy — clarity in message matters too.
6 months ago
