New tourism investments spark a travel boom in Saudi Arabia
DUBAI: As Saudi Arabia gets ready to open its doors to tourists from
around the world, its own citizens are expected to take their travels to
the next level in coming years.
With travel bookings in the Kingdom considered the largest in the Middle
East and North Africa (MENA) — worth more than $25 billion each year —
the power of the Saudi traveller shows no sign of slowing down.
“Based on our insights and data from this year, we foresee that in 2019,
some of the travel trends for Saudi consumers will be increased
duration of stay, continued momentum and growth around religious
tourism, and more interest in resort-based destinations,” said Muzzammil
Ahussain, executive vice president of Almosafer, a Saudi online travel
platform.
“In 2018, we found that travellers opted for longer vacations, with the
average length of stay increasing by 20 percent compared with 2017.”
Religious tourism is a growing travel sector in the Kingdom, with the
platform’s hotel bookings for Makkah and Madinah increasing by 92
percent in 2018 versus 2017.
The platform also had a rise in bookings for resort destinations such as Bali, Sharm El-Sheikh and Orlando.
“Within the Middle East, the top destinations for Saudi travellers
include Dubai, Cairo, Manama and Sharm El-Sheikh, but we can also see
that they are increasingly opting to travel further abroad, with
destinations such as Kuala Lumpur, Colombo and Tbilisi on the rise,”
Ahussain said.
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