Saudi Arabia Tourism Report Q2 2012

Business Monitor International's Saudi Arabia Tourism Report provides industry professionals and strategists, corporate analysts, tourism associations, government departments and regulatory bodies with independent forecasts and competitive intelligence on Saudi Arabia's tourism industry.

Saudi Arabia's tourism industry is unique in that despite the limitations of strict entrance visa regulations, the industry has strong growth potential. That said, uncertainty across the region as its political landscape changes may heighten security risks and place downward pressure on Saudi Arabia's tourism arrivals. We hold to our growth forecast for the country but stress that continued unrest may cause tourists to give the entire region a wide berth. Tourist arrivals are forecast to increase by 8% year-on-year (y-o-y) to 14.87mn in 2012. We forecast the number of tourist arrivals to grow by an average of 6% y-o-y through to the end of our forecast period in 2016. One of the main drivers for the tourism industry is religious tourism. Saudi Arabia is home to two of Islam's holiest cities, Mecca and Medina, and every year millions of Muslims go to Mecca for the Hajj, the largest annual pilgrimage in the world. Business travel is also a growing area, given Saudi Arabia's status as the world's largest oil exporter and its other large industries such as defence.

The hospitality sector looks set to grow in tandem with tourist arrivals. BMI forecasts that there will be about 424,000 hotel rooms in Saudi Arabia by 2016, up from a projected 317,000 in 2012. In 2009, a number of international chains opened their first hotels in the market, including Rotana, Hyatt Hotels & Resorts, Accor and Raffles Hotels & Resorts. Those already present in the market are expanding, with InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), al-Hokair Group, Starwood Hotels & Resorts, Rezidor Hotel Group and Wyndham Hotel Group opening new hotels in 2010 and 2011.

The Saudi authorities have said they want to diversify away from dependence on oil, with the tourism industry one of the focal points. Government expenditure has focused on developing the religious tourism and business travel sectors in particular, and for this reason we forecast an increase in collective government expenditure (expenditure that cannot be assigned to a particular group of tourists) and individual government expenditure (which refers to investment in services with an identifiable individual customer) over the forecast period.

The government is also keen to develop its domestic tourism market in an effort to capture some of the capital spent by the millions of Saudi citizens that travel abroad each year. Saudi tourists mainly travel to other countries in the Middle East. Despite efforts to encourage more Saudis to holiday at home, we forecast the number of citizens travelling abroad will increase from 10.72mn in 2012 to 13.55mn in 2016. International tourism expenditure is also forecast to increase, reaching US$10.8bn by the end of the forecast period.

Saudi Arabia has been boosting its international presence and tourism marketing. In January 2011, the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities (SCTA) set up pages and accounts on tourism in the country on a number of social networking sites, including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. In 2010, the tourism board hosted 18 festivals targeting all age groups. The festivals were held throughout the country and included sports events, entertainment and Saudi culture and heritage. Four new provincial museums, in Bahah, Tabuk, Hail and Dammam, are scheduled to be open by the end of 2012, while the tourism authorities have also licensed 40 private museums to be established using the new technology to showcase Saudi Arabia's heritage and antiquities. Internationally, Saudi Arabia's pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo 2010, which ran from May to October, attracted more than 30,000 people a day. The Saudi pavilion was the largest after China's. To further cement the country's global tourism footprint, the travel publisher Lonely Planet intends to release a separate guide on tourist spots in Saudi Arabia. It has previously been included in the Oman, UAE and Arabian Peninsula guide. SHOW LESS READ MORE >

Executive Summary
SWOT Analysis
Saudi Arabia Tourism SWOT
Saudi Arabia Political SWOT
Saudi Arabia Economic SWOT
Saudi Arabia Business Environment SWOT
Industry Forecast Scenario
Arrivals
Table: Arrivals, 2009-2016
Accommodation
Table: Hotels Data, 2009-2016 (‘000)
Expenditure
Table: Tourist Expenditure And Economic Impact, 2009-2016
Inbound Tourism
Table: Inbound Tourism, 2009-2016
Outbound Tourism
Table: Outbound Tourism, 2009-2016
Market Overview – Travel
Air Travel
Rail Travel
Road Travel
Global Oil Products Price Outlook
Market Overview – Hospitality
Hotels
Business Environment Outlook
Table: Middle East And Africa Travel And Tourism Business Environment Ratings
BMI's Security Ratings
Table: Middle East And Africa Defence And Security Ratings
Table: Middle East And North Africa State Vulnerability To Terrorism Index
Middle East And Africa Security Overview
The Middle East In A Global Context
Challenges And Threats To Stability And Security
Global Assumptions
Table: Global Assumptions, 2010-2016
Developed States
Table: Developed States' Real GDP Growth, 2010-2013
Emerging Markets
Table: Emerging Markets' Real GDP Growth, 2010-2013
Consensus
Table: Real GDP Growth Consensus Forecasts, 2012 And 2013
Company Profiles
Elaf Group
Nas Air
Sama
Saudi Arabian Airlines
Saudi BinLadin Group
BMI Methodology
How We Generate Our Industry Forecasts
Tourism Industry
Tourism Ratings – Methodology
Table: Tourism Business Environment Indicators
Table: Weighting of Components
Sources

- Elaf Group
- Nas Air
- Sama
- Saudi Arabian Airlines
- Saudi BinLadin Group