Saudis to spend SR 19.5 billion on tourism abroad

Tourism trips outside Saudi Arabia will increase to 6 million this summer compared to 5.4 million last year, said a report from the Tourism Information and Research Center at the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities (SCTA). This is a 10 percent increase.
The report said it expected around 4.8 million trips into Saudi Arabia this year, against 4.3 million in the same period last year. Local tourist numbers are expected to stand at 5.3 million as opposed to 5 million the previous year.
The report estimated that the expenses of these departure tours would come to SR 19.5 billion. They were SR 18 billion last summer, an 8 percent increase. It also estimated that a single tourist would spend on average SR 581 per night. On the average distribution of departing tours it is forecast 45 percent would be to the Gulf countries, 33.9 percent to other countries in the Middle East, 9.9 percent to Southeast Asia and 10.6 percent to other continents including Europe and the US.
Tourism for holidays and shopping ranks first at 47.2 percent, visiting family and friends at 24.9 percent, business tourism at 2 percent and others at 25.9 percent.
Total nights spent during this summer is expected to stand at 33.6 million nights compared to 29.2 million nights the previous period, a 15 percent increase. The average number of night spent is put at 5.6 while it was 5.4 in 2012. Local tourism will increase by 5 percent because of the efforts of the SCTA and its partners.
Initial estimates show that the expenditures on these tourism trips will be SR 10 billion as compared to SR 8.9 billion last year, an 18 percent increase.
Statistics also show that the expenditures of trips by expatriates will register at SR 15.7 billion. These were at SR 12.3 billion the previous year, a 28 percent increase with an average spending per night of SR 151 for 2013.
The most important sites in Saudi Arabia which tourists are expected to visit include Makkah as first place and at 35.5 percent, Riyadh province at 28.6 percent, Eastern province at 23.1 percent and Madinah at 6.9 percent.
Tourists to the Kingdom come from Gulf countries at 34.8 percent, Middle Eastern countries at 27.2 percent and Southeast Asia at 17.4 percent.
The 42 festivals this summer are expected to generate 4,500 job opportunities and would receive more than 10 million tourists and realize economic returns of billions of riyals.