On November 5th, at the 2024 World Travel Market event in London, England, Saudi Arabia officially launched a maritime tourism initiative in the Saudi Red Sea.
At the Saudi Pavillion, His Excellency Ahmed Al-Khateeb, Minister of Tourism and Chairman of the Saudi Tourism Authority formally introduced The coastal super-destination, which finds several key land and water areas of the region including NEOM, Amaala, Red Sea Global, Jeddah Historical, and King Abdullah Economic City.
Saudi Arabia – A Superyacht Destination
An initiative designed for superyacht tourism, the Saudi Red Sea focuses on maintaining sustainable coastal development across the 1,800-kilometer coastline. In recent years, The Kingdom has heavily invested in building infrastructure to attract superyachts from across the globe. Its latest offering, the launch of Sindalah Marina in late October, is an 86-berth marina accommodating superyachts up to 180 meters in length. 53 superyachts traversed the Red Sea for the grand opening.
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Representatives from the Ministry of Tourism, the Tourism Development Fund, ASFAR, Cruise Saudi, Saudia, Riyadh Air, Red Sea Global, Diriyah Company, the Royal Commission for AlUla, and NEOM acted as Saudi delegates at WTM.
The Formation of The Saudi Red Sea Authority
The Saudi Red Sea Authority is a government entity formed in 2021 to build and regulate the coastal tourism sector in Saudi Arabia. Over the past three years, SRSA has enhanced integration between the relevant parties through issuing licenses and permits, developing requisite strategies and policies, adding safeguards to preserve the marine environment, and determining the requirements for marine infrastructure.
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In September 2024, The Saudi Red Sea Authority (SRSA) and The International Council of Marine Industry Associations (ICOMIA) agreed on a new strategic alliance in an effort to boost the region’s coastal tourism sector.
Through the newly formed partnership, ICOMIA plans to work toward this goal with SRSA by establishing connections with the global recreation boating industry, providing technical insight, and offering access to specialist training and development.
In other recent developments, the SRSA has set tourist goals for Saudi Arabia, as a recently published report “Investing in Coastal Tourism” revealed the Kingdom’s plans to attract 19 million visitors and create over 200,000 jobs by 2030, emphasizing the role marine tourism plays in this respect as the plans also plan on contributing approximately SAR85 billion (US$22.64 billion) to GDP by 2030
Finally, marina and cruise terminal codes were put into place. SRSA introduced four industry-specific codes to improve the coastal tourism infrastructure: the Marina Planning and Design Code, the Cruise Terminal Planning and Design Code, the Marina Operations Code, and the Cruise Terminal Operations Code.