Episode summary
Inside Saudi Arabia’s Push to Become a Global Vacation Destination
Wall Street Week
· · 12 min · Guests: Ahmed Al-Khateeb, John Pagano, Abeer AlAkel, Steven Cook
Summary
Saudi Arabia is trying to cut its dependence on oil by turning tourism into a major growth engine under Vision 2030. The kingdom says it wants oil’s share of GDP to fall from more than 40% to closer to 35% by 2030, while non-oil activity rises to about two-thirds of the economy. That push now includes opening the property market to foreign investors and, later, the equity market, even after the benchmark index fell 13% in 2025.
The tourism minister says the country is building new destinations, new airlines such as Riyadh Air, new airports, and new hotels to support both religious and leisure travel. Projects like the Red Sea resorts and AlUla are meant to combine luxury, nature, and heritage for visitors from the Gulf, Asia, the U.S., and Europe. The leadership’s goal is 50 million foreign visitors a year by the end of the decade, plus 100 million domestic tourists.
The episode also emphasizes the scale of the capital outlay and the role of private and foreign investment. The government plans to spend almost $1 trillion on tourism, while private tourism investment reached $3.8 billion in 2024, with about 40% from foreign capital. A foreign-policy analyst says the kingdom still faces institutional weaknesses and strong regional competition, even as social changes and new attractions make the country more open to global leisure travel.
Key takeaways
- Saudi Arabia wants to reduce oil’s GDP share from more than 40% to about 35% by 2030 and lift non-oil output to around two-thirds.
- The tourism minister says the kingdom is building airlines, airports, hotels, and new destinations to expand beyond religious pilgrimage travel.
- The country is targeting 50 million foreign visitors a year by the end of the decade and 100 million domestic tourists.
- Private tourism investment reached $3.8 billion in 2024, and about 40% of it came from foreign capital.
- A foreign-policy analyst says Saudi Arabia still lacks the market institutions needed for broad investor confidence and faces fierce regional competition.
Notable quotes
“Through its vision 2030, Saudi Arabia wants to shed its image as just an oil nation and modernize its economy”
“Tourism was one of the main pillars of uh vision 2030 and since then we have been working to modernize the country, build new destinations, new airlines, Riyad airlines, new airports including King Salman airport and uh new hotels”
“We have a beautiful pristine environment which in the world today doesn't exist”
“The 50 million will put Saudi Arabia among the top 10 most visited countries around the world”
“The government plans to spend almost $1 trillion in all to transform its tourism industry”
How the episode opens
Many countries seek to transform their economies, but few do it with such a centralized approach and such vast amounts of capital. Through its vision 2030, Saudi Arabia wants to shed its image as just an oil nation and modernize its economy. It's a goal that comes from the very top with the crown prince meeting President Trump and foreign business leaders in the United States at the end of 2025.
More than 40% of Saudi Arabia's GDP comes from oil, but by 2030, the kingdom wants that number to be closer to 35% with around 2/3 of GDP coming from non-oil sources. Just this month, the country started opening its property market to foreign investors and announced plans to do the same with its equity markets after a year of poor returns. In 2025, Saudi Arabia's benchmark index dropped 13% despite strong stock performance in much of the rest of the world.
Steven Cook is a senior fellow for Middle East and Africa studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.
Saudi economy has been a commercial economy, but it hasn't really had genuine institutions of a market economy. Independent courts, which he hasn't even tackled yet, but rational investment laws and the things that uh investors really really need in order to operate outside of the hydrocarbon industry. you know with the vision 2030 his royal highness the crown prince uh said we have to diversify the economy we don't want to continue relying on one source of income which is the oil in a time where we have vast number of other things like mining natural resources for fat gold and nature we can do a lot in it sport culture and entertainment ment and tourism.
His excellency Ahmed al Katib has been serving as Saudi Arabia's minister of tourism since 2020.
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- saudi tourism expansion
- vision 2030 diversification
- red sea resorts investment
- alula cultural destinations
- foreign capital and competition
Companies and tickers mentioned
- Red Sea Global
- Royal Commission for AlUla
Watch the episode
Watch “Inside Saudi Arabia’s Push to Become a Global Vacation Destination” on YouTube
Summary, takeaways and quote selection by Octagon. Quotes are short excerpts; the full conversation is in the episode.
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