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| AlUla, an ancient Arabic oasis city located in Saudi Arabia's northwestern province of Medina / Courtesy of Saudi Tourism Authority |
By Lee Hae-rin
While seeking to establish itself as a global travel destination with a budget of $1 trillion for tourism in the next decade, Saudi Arabia plans to attract over 53,000 travelers from Korea this year, its travel authorities announced, Monday.
The Saudi Tourism Authority (STA) held a roadshow in central Seoul, Monday, with 200 key Korean media and business partners from hotels, airlines and travel agencies.
"We're expecting 53,000 (Korean travelers) this year and we plan to more than quadruple this by 2030," the STA's APAC Markets President Alhasan Aldabbagh said. The figure is significantly higher than 2022's 11,000 and the pre-pandemic levels of 12,000 from 2019.
Home to six UNESCO World Heritage sites and over 10,000 unearthed archaeological sites, the Kingdom has been outpacing G20 countries in tourism recovery with over 93.5 million visits and a total tourism spend of 185 billion Saudi riyals ($49.3 billion) in 2022, according to the STA.
To accelerate inbound tourism, Saudi Arabia operates an e-visa program for individual travelers from Korea and 50 other countries, in which passengers riding Saudia or any other Saudi airlines can get a maximum 96-hour stopover visa for the Kingdom and receive a free one-night stay at a hotel.
Since last August, Saudi's national carrier Saudia has been operating direct flights between Seoul and Riyadh and added a Jeddah-Seoul route in March.
"Saudi's participation in the multi-city roadshow is a commitment to the South Korean market and local partners as the Saudi Tourism Authority strengthens existing strategic links to facilitate trade development," Aldabbagh said, highlighting that the shared cultural values between the two countries, such as the strong sense of community, respect for elderly and family-centered lifestyles could connect people from the two nations.
Saudi Arabia is also safe for women travelers, in contrast to Korea's preconception of the Arab world, the tourism authorities stressed.
"Saudi is one of the safest countries in the world," he said, citing the latest world index by the global travel insurance comparison platform InsureMyTrip.
"In Saudi, you can leave your wallet on a table at a restaurant, you will come back and find it. You can leave your car running and find it … Women are much respected in our society and when any foreign woman comes to Saudi, she gets immediately that the respect translated to her," he said.
Under the Saudi government's newly developed giga projects, the Kingdom plans to attract 100 million visitors by 2030.
The Red Sea Project, one of the four giga projects, the 28,000-kilometer, square-sized mega ecotourism destination along the untouched west coast of the Red Sea will see the first phase of opening in 2023 with the launch of Red Sea International Airport.
By 2030, the region will comprise 50 resorts with up to 8,000 hotel rooms across 22 islands with golf courses, entertainment and leisure facilities.
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