Event Tourism in Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia is witnessing a new era in the tourism sector to achieve Vision 2030. It is heading to discover its cities and destinations and create a new scenic coastal site and many heritage areas, which will drive Saudi Arabia to be one of the attraction destination and entertainment in Middle East within few upcoming years. Saudi Arabia Vision is focusing on diversifying sources of income as part of National Transformation Program and Tourism sector has a high importance to the development of the local economy as it’s belonged to the third main sector of the Saudi economy which is Services Sector which is mainly concentrating on increasing the annual GDP.

Saudi Vision 2030 is leading to a massive transformation for the tourism sector from totally relying on religious tourism as its hosting millions of Muslims every year for Hajj and Umrah, to entertainment festivals and country culture exploring. Thus, attract foreign investment and world-wide tourists.

Saudi Arabia recognized the impact of this sector on its economy, and this transformation will help the way stimulate economic growth. The tourism industry is a great asset to generate employment opportunities and job creation for young Saudi’s who they represent 70% of the total population. In addition, it supports in stimulating private sector investment in the country's non-oil economy.

The Kingdom also launched several initiatives and projects to attract Saudi citizens for domestic tourism and divert its spending on international tourism to support the economy, especially that the spending of the Saudi citizen amounted to 78 billion SR ($ 21 billion) in 2017 (According to the Saudi Tourism Information and Research Centre). In this regard, the government of Saudi Arabia announced that it would start issuing tourist visas for non-religious tourists in 2018, e-visas issued for foreign visitors to attend events and concerts that were organized by the General Entertainment Authority which was established on 2016 as part of Saudi Vision 2030 to improve the tourism sector.

Saudi Arabia’s nature offers a wide variety of scenery, while its rich with historical sites, different cultures and important destination for Muslims. Hence, its planning to host more numbers of pilgrims per year to reach 30 million instead of eight million currently. Meanwhile, the Kingdom is seeking to increase the number of heritages that currently registered with the UNESCO. All these elements are important to make it attractive tourist destination, especially if the tourism visa program is expanded to be available for everyone throughout the year.

Although these projects seem very ambitious, it also demands changes as there is numerous of challenges and risks that facing the Saudi tourism new directions. The domestic tourism specially facing some challenges such as high prices and high taxes for the accommodation and flights. Invalidity for many of the internal roads linking the provinces and cities of the country, especially those containing archaeological sites. Lack and poor services needed by tourists on the roads leading to tourist places, lack of many necessities, especially housing, such as: three-star hotels for low-income tourists, as well as cleanliness and some other luxury services that can encourage domestic tourism. For the international tourists, the visa availability, electronic visa was easy to get during events for international tourists and it was available for the entertainment seasons during 2018 and 2019. But, to increase the demand for Saudi Arabia as non-religious tourism destination, E-visa or visa on entry must be available all the time. The Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage (SCTH) must raise the awareness of national heritage sites and develop tourism services. On other hand, SAG identified several projects aimed at expanding and establishing the tourism sector. NEOM is a USD 500 billion mega-city planned for Tabuk province that is set to be world’s first private zone spanning 26,500 square kilometers, the Farasan Islands in the Jazan province, an archipelago of 84 coral islands in the Red Sea, are being developed into a marine sanctuary and eco-tourism destination. Jabal Sawda near Abha in the Asir Region, situated on a high plateau that receives more rainfall than the rest of the country and contains the country's highest peaks (which rise to almost 3,000 meters) is also being geared to receive tourists. Finally, Al-Uqair, on the Saudi eastern coast, is being developed to offer waterfront activities that target domestic tourists (‘Saudi Arabia - Travel, Tourism, and Entertainment’). All these projects will be exceptional transformation to lead Saudi Arabia to an international touristic leapfrog plus the opportunities and business that will be provided for enterprises and small companies and foreign investment.

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Saudi Arabia is now tending to emphasis on short term goal to achieve the 2020 aims for tourism sector. In 2018 started to organize festivals, events and Saudi seasons all over the regions. That included, food festivals such as, Honey festival in Rijal Almaa, Al-Jouf Olive festival which begun on 2008 but many Saudis was not aware of such festival. As per statistic report, the revenue of this festival has reached 9 million SR in 2017 and was an opportunity for Saudis to discover one of the first food festivals in the country and motivated the Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritages to organize more similar events. This will lead for more potential chances to develop the domestic tourism. The heritage events, Al-Janadriyah National Festival for Heritage and Culture is the most well-known festival through the years that has begun in 1985, this festival located in the heritage area of Riyadh the capital of Saudi Arabia. This festival will be a great chance for the international tourist to discover the country traditions and history through years. Moreover, Jeddah Historic Festival, a second major heritage event lunched in 2013, SAG took advantage that the historical Jeddah was listing UNESCO as a heritage site. Several GOs collaborated to transform Jeddah city center from an abandoned neighborhood with dilapidated historical buildings and poor infrastructure to a suitable place to host one of the major events in Saudi Arabia. This event attracted millions of visitors since 2013.

Saudi Seasons is another type of events, in 2018 Al-Ula season named ‘Winter at Tantora’. A place such as Al-Ula, has many cultures; the Dedanites, Lihyanites and Nabataeans all built cities there. Attracted international tourists as the E-visa was linked with this event, Maraya new hall concerts that contained international performers. This event was targeting both Saudi and international visitors and as start to the open culture that SAG is trying to accomplish, this event successfully achieved the main goal. It was on high standards of tourism attractions. And so many other festivals that is driving the Saudi tourism toward a different phase of non- religious tourism.

During the summer season, the temperature in Saudi Arabia reaches over 45°, and there are also school holidays when many Saudis go abroad to Europe or other countries to enjoy their summer holidays in countries with cold weather. This will lead to a drop in the domestic tourism which will result to a decrease in the economy. But SAG managed to organize summer events in the Southern region of the country, that known with cold and nice weather to attract as many as possible of citizens specially who that are looking for reducing travel expenses and costs. In this regard, Dubai with its excellent facilities attracts academics, professionals, government officials, and other tourist groups. Dubai’s hosts major regional exhibitions, such as the Dubai City Scape and GITEX Technology Week (‘Developing Event Tourism in Saudi Arabia: Challenges and Opportunities’). These advantages allow Dubai to be a first choice for international tourist.

Saudi Arabia must improve and develop event management education and professionalism, few numbers of Saudi event organizers are qualified to manage and organize these events. This matter will result poor quality events.

The tourism and hospitality college were the only college for this field until 2000. The SCTNH advised number of Saudi universities to establish tourism and hospitality colleges around the Kingdom. In the last decade, 63 tourism educational institutions have been established or under establishment in Saudi Arabia. To ensure their quality, about half of these institutions are operated by American, Canadian, and Australian institutions (COE, 2013; ‘Developing Event Tourism in Saudi Arabia: Challenges and Opportunities’). SCTNH now has many scholarship programs in tourism and hospitality such as Neom and Red Sea scholarships which are both main projects of Saudi Vision 2030 for the tourism sector.

In conclusion, Saudi Arabia is ranked 62nd on the Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index (TTCR, 2015). The Saudi tourism industry is expected to climb the TTCR index with all these projects and promising achievements. Saudi Arabia location that linking two continents Asia and Africa also are in the middle of the world, hosting one of the largest religious events Hajj, with rich local cultures, and listed heritage sites on the UNESCO list, and it nature is in strong relation to event tourism sector. SCTNH leads to preserve the growth in number of festivals, heritages and seasonal events.

References

1. (PDF) ‘Developing Event Tourism in Saudi Arabia: Challenges and Opportunities’. (2016, February 1). Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/274569109_Developing_event_tourism_in_Saudi_Arabia_challenges_and_opportunities
2. About Al-Ula. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.winterattantora.com/en/about/Pages/AboutTantora.aspx
3. National Transformation Program. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://vision2030.gov.sa/en/programs/NTP
4. SCTH - Saudi Commission for Tourism & National Heritage. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://scth.gov.sa/en/Pages/default.aspx