Tourism direct GDP (2024) | Tourism direct employment (2025) | Travel exports (2025) |
|---|---|---|
4.9% of total GDP (provisional data) (up 0.5 percentage points since 2023) | 5.4% of total employment (down 0.1 percentage points since 2024) | 61.4% of total service exports (down 3.8 percentage points since 2024) |
OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2026
National tourism strategy: National Tourism Strategy, 2019-2030
Responsible government agency: Ministry of Tourism
National tourism budget: -
Key tourism policy priorities and actions:
Managing visitor capacity and safety – Enabling competitive E-visas and the continued development of 'KSA Visa', a unified visa platform.
Encouraging tourism investment – Utilising government-backed incentives and public-private partnerships to stimulate private investment and accelerate infrastructure development.
Developing and reskilling the tourism workforce – Providing free tourism options for people with financial limitations and those belonging to groups with disabilities.
Tourism is one of Saudi Arabia’s fastest growing sectors and is considered essential for the country’s economic diversification, employment, and sustainable development. Based on preliminary estimates, tourism directly accounted for SAR 231.5 billion or 4.9% of GDP in 2024, up from 4.4% in 2023. The sector also demonstrated strong performance in employment, directly supporting more than one million jobs in 2025, or 5.4% of the national workforce, representing an increase of around 6.2% compared to 2024 (966 500 jobs).
Inbound tourism reached 29.3 million international tourist arrivals in 2025, down 1.6% compared to 2024. Inbound travel receipts reached SAR 176.6 billion, reflecting a 5.0% growth compared to 2024. Leisure tourism continued to be a primary driver of inbound tourism growth. Domestic tourism also demonstrated significant growth, recording 93.3 million domestic tourists in 2025, up 8.0% on 2024. This led to domestic tourism generated revenues of SAR 127.1 billion up 10.0% on 2024.
In 2025, the Saudi Arabia tourism sector recorded 122.6 million overnight visitors, exceeding the Vision 2030 target of 100 million for the third consecutive year. This, in addition to considerable growth, has spurred Saudi Arabia to adjust to a more ambitious target of 150 million tourists by 2030.
The Ministry of Tourism is responsible for defining tourism policy and regulating the tourism sector in Saudi Arabia, including tourism strategy, regulations, destination development, human capital development, and investment attraction.
The Ministry co-ordinates with other government entities on tourism policy development through several mechanisms, including memorandums of understanding, joint committees and regular meetings with other ministries. The Ministry engages with the private sector on policy development through, for example, public-private partnerships, tourism councils and industry surveys.
The Saudi Tourism Authority is responsible for branding, marketing and promotional efforts with travel agencies and tour operators. Other entities such as the Air Connectivity Programme enables new route development, while the Tourism Development Fund supports the private sector to develop offerings and accommodations.
The tourism ecosystem works closely with all the relevant government entities, such as the Ministry of Culture, General Authority of Civil Aviation, General Entertainment Authority, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Transport, Ministry of Electricity, Water and Agriculture, etc. This approach is being reviewed to deliver a streamlined and agile governance framework that adapts to the emerging needs of the kingdom’s tourism sector.
Regional development authorities play a crucial role in developing and promoting tourism destinations. They are responsible for ensuring that the necessary infrastructure and services are in place to support the sector. The Royal Commission for Al-Ula is tasked with developing the Al-Ula region as a world-class tourist destination, while the Madinah Development Authority aims to enhance the tourism experience for visitors by redesigning and upgrading public spaces in the city.
Source: OECD, adapted from Ministry of Tourism, 2026.
The National Tourism Strategy, launched in 2019, guides the development of tourism the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The overarching goal of the strategy is ‘to win people’s hearts and minds by opening our doors to the world through a tourism sector where life-changing stories happen every day’. The core objectives of the Strategy were revised in 2023 due to achieving the 2030 target 7 years ahead of schedule and are now:
Visitors: Reach 150 million visits.
Economy: Support Saudi Arabia’s GDP by 10%, grow contribution of the private sector and direct foreign investments and unlock potential of the non-oil government sector.
Employment: Provide 1.6 million job opportunities by 2030 to contribute to increasing employment.
Vision 2030 is supported by regional tourism strategies. Each region in Saudi Arabia develops its own strategy, where relevant, tourism is positioned as a key strategic pillar and aligned with the objectives of the National Tourism Strategy.
To better manage visitor safety and capacity during high seasons Saudi Arabia has launched 'KSA Visa'. This presents a unified visa platform and expanded e-visa accessibility to more than 66 countries. A new ‘Visa by Profile’ initiative has also been launched to accelerate visa decision making in collaboration with Visa and participating banks, using travellers’ credit scores (see box below).
To encourage tourism investment, Saudi Arabia is providing government-backed incentives and pursuing public-private partnerships to stimulate private investment and accelerate infrastructure development through Business Environment Reforms and Targeted Incentives. Saudi Arabia is advancing a co-ordinated set of policy measures to strengthen the enabling environment for tourism investment and expand private sector participation across the value chain. At the centre of this effort, the Tourism Saudi Business Center serves as the sector's dedicated one-stop shop, providing investors and entrepreneurs with a single access point to more than 200 services, spanning licensing, advisory, financing, and investor matchmaking. The Center is designed to improve administrative efficiency and streamline engagement across the full investment lifecycle. Complementing this, the Hospitality Enablers Program, launched by the Ministry of Tourism in March 2024, supports investment in hospitality assets within priority destinations to elevate the national tourism offering. Through a targeted package of exemptions, the programme reduces operating risk during the critical early years of asset stabilisation. In its first two years, the programme has enabled more than 20 projects, unlocking over 3 000 additional rooms and mobilising more than SAR 5 billion in investment.
Develop local tourism talent has led to investment in large-scale reskilling and workforce development programs. This includes enhancing tourism workforce development by promoting sector attractiveness, strengthening tourism career pathways, creating digital matching platforms, and prioritising employee retention and satisfaction.
Saudi Arabia currently serves as the Co-Chair of the UN Tourism Committee on Statistics, jointly with Austria, reflecting its leading role in advancing global tourism statistical systems.
The Kingdom is also progressing national efforts to measure tourism sustainability in alignment with the UN Tourism SF-MST framework. A structured database has been developed covering 30 sustainable tourism indicators across environmental, economic, and social dimensions. Of these indicators, 21 are directly linked to ten Sustainable Development Goals, ensuring coherence with national sustainable development priorities. Ten indicators are already fully measurable based on existing administrative and survey data, while work is ongoing with national partners to close remaining data gaps and operationalise the full indicator set. The results will be published progressively through national tourism statistical releases and future sustainability reports, forming an evidence base to support informed decision making in the sector.
Saudi Arabia has introduced a new “Visa by Profile” initiative to accelerate visa processing times building on existing banking administrative information, the first of its kind worldwide. The initiative enables eligible Visa branded debit and credit cardholders to receive expedited visa processing using only their passport details and Visa card information, with qualified travellers able to obtain their electronic tourist visas within minutes.
Developed by the Saudi Tourism Authority in partnership with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Interior, and the Ministry of Tourism, in collaboration with Visa, and participating banks, the initiative seeks to remove barriers to travel, attract high-value tourists, and accelerate visa decision-making through digital integration and regulatory co-operation. It uses travellers’ credit scores to ensure financial solvency through an automated digital check, streamlining approvals for millions of new travellers.
The Visa by Profile initiative is designed to fully automate the visa issuance process through seamless integration among government entities, airports, and digital systems operated by institutions such as credit bureaus and banks. The initiative will be available to banks wishing to participate and is set to launch in 2026, with continued expansion as more banks and credit-card issuers join the partnership.