Saudi Tourism Revenue Surges to 82.7B Riyals in Q1

**Tim Elliott** (0:00)
It's the Morning Drive, it's Mira Business FM, and it's property and Saudi Arabian X, the tourism sector, more specifically, generated more than 82 billion reals in visitor spending. It's the first three months of 2026 International tourists continue to account for the biggest share of spending. Let's look at this, it's a new report. Kevin Duffield is regional director of built asset consulting at Cavendish Maxwell. He's here to talk about hospitality trends, hotel development plans, what's next for the kingdom's tourism ambitions.
Good to have you here.

**Kevin Duffield** (0:37)
Thanks, Tim. Thank you for the invite and thanks for having me on the show.

**Tim Elliott** (0:40)
You're very welcome. So, Saudi Arabia recorded 82.7 billion reals to be exact in tourism spending in Q1. So, what were the big drivers behind the growth, Kevin?

**Kevin Duffield** (0:53)
So, you've got two key drivers. The first one is obviously domestic tourism.
That's driven by a couple of things. So, firstly, political instability. I don't want to say war or conflict, so we'll say political instability. More people are looking at domestic tourism rather than traveling further afield. The first thing. And then secondly, you've got the foundation of religious tourism. You've got seasonal demand, you've got Ramadan, you've got Eid, you've basically got Hajj. They've all, obviously with the changing of the Islamic calendar, they've all fallen into Q1. Something that has contributed towards that massive spend.
And the thing is that we're going to have to look at Q2 and Q3 to see if that trend is actually going to continue. So in terms of, you know, it's all very, very positive in Q1, but we need to see if that trend is going to continue throughout the year.

**Tim Elliott** (1:43)
In terms of international travellers, travellers from outside, when you look at that figure, how much of it is part of this kind of calculated marketing push in the kingdom, or is there a shift in how the region maybe attracts international travelers, global travelers?

**Kevin Duffield** (2:02)
Yeah, I mean, interestingly, international travelers made up a fifth in terms of the total travelers within this period, but they contributed to 60% of the total spend.
They have higher spending capacity, higher spending threshold, they want more luxurious experiences, whether it's in terms of accommodation, whether in terms of F&B or leisure and entertainment. So, that kind of offsets that low volume. But also, you need to look at is where are these metrics coming from? So, international travelers that are actually coming through the gateways into the country, or is it international travelers such as Western expats that have decided to stay rather than travel, given obviously the instability in the region? So, there's a bit more drilling down into them numbers before you can come with a completely accurate figure, but primarily, it's due to the higher volume of spend.

**Tim Elliott** (2:49)
Okay. So, international visit numbers fell for obvious reasons, I guess, but spending is still strong. What else do you think? What's your opinion of what's behind that trend?

**Kevin Duffield** (3:04)
I think it's curiosity, if I'm being completely honest. I mean, I grew up in Saudi in the late 70s, early 80s, and I can tell you there was certainly nothing compared to what they have now.
And if you look at what is attractive in Saudi, you've got the al-Ula's of the world, you've got the Red Sea developments, you've got hundreds of miles of beautiful coastline, you've then got either side of that, you've got the Ava region, and you've got the Neom and Jadina, you've got the mountainous regions. But then you've got the, what I would call the entertainment tourism, you've got Six Flags at Kadiya, you've got Acqua Arabia. All these things have only really come about in the last three or four years, where they've been envisioned, and now they're actually starting to generate money. And the other thing as well is golf, believe it or not. You know, the huge push with Golf Saudi, obviously, you've got the Live, and, you know, Saudi has some amazing golf courses. There's a huge plan to bring more online, and ironically, it is seeing a lot more golf tourism. It's actually cheaper to fly to Saudi for two days and play golf, and stay in a hotel than it is to play one round in Dubai in the winter, believe it or not.

**Tim Elliott** (4:12)
I can see that working for those people that wear that glove on the right hand. I suppose. What is this? There's been a surge in spending, it's probably fair to say.
What does it mean the hotel operators on the ground? Are they, is it a struggle to keep pace, or is the infrastructure maturing in line with demand?