Though it was very seasonal and limited to Makkah and Madinah, the volume of pilgrims offer big opportunities to be exploited. There were largest existing demand for hotel rooms and other services by the pilgrims that keep the business going.
Discussing hospitality development in Saudi Arabia, the experts identified the religious tourism as one of the three main components of hospitality sectors with business visitors and leisure tourists being the other two.
It was observed that because of its being highly capital intensive, hotel business in Saudi Arabia was a high risk sector, but at the same time it was full of opportunities and promises some of the highest returns on investment. The experts observed that economic cities offered new opportunities to property developers as well as to investors.
Another session on “affordable housing” saw the a specialist panel discussing the importance of facilitating affordable housing and the main challenges including financing, land development and building.
Numerous studies show conclusively the serious shortage of affordable housing in Saudi Arabia, which is forecast to get worse in the coming years. The development of affordable housing, including solution to the issues around unplanned settlements, is a key social and economic priority in the Kingdom, the panelists said.
Oscar Silva, former chief executive officer, GIB Financial Service, who was the chairman of the Cityscape conference and moderated all the sessions, said that the good thing about the event was that it brought together lots of government officials, banks, real estate developers, consultants and environmental specialists.
The real estate sector is the second most important economic driver in the Kingdom. “The fundamentals are there and the sector is just taking off. Oil prices are raising disposable income, population growth is taking place. All this has raised demand for affordable housing. There are lots of issues and challenges that need to be addressed,” he said.
The Hilton conference was marked by a real estate exhibition at the Jeddah Center for Forums and Events, in which more than 100 local and regional property investors, developers and service providers participated.
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