Domestic holidays kept Saudi tourism hot during war

• ‘Very strong’ first quarter
• Red Sea fully booked during Eid
• Kingdom has invested heavily

Saudi Arabia’s tourism minister and executives behind the kingdom’s giga-projects said visitor numbers stayed resilient throughout the Iran war, largely because domestic tourism increased.

Speaking at the Future Investment Initiative Priority in Rome this week, Ahmed Al-Khateeb said the country had a very strong first quarter and that Red Sea resorts were fully booked over the Eid weekend.

“We are very happy with the numbers,” he said, describing them as 10 percent higher than in the first quarter of last year.

Saudi Arabia has invested heavily in tourism in recent years, with the $1 trillion Public Investment Fund backing giga-projects such as Diriyah near Riyadh and a cluster of beach resorts under Red Sea Global.

Tourism has been hit across the GCC by the war, which has prompted several international airlines to cancel flights to the region and has sent foreign visitor numbers tumbling.

Saudi Arabia, which has the GCC’s largest domestic population of more than 35 million, has been among the least affected.

Alongside its nascent leisure tourism industry, millions of religious tourists visit the country each year to perform the Islamic pilgrimages of Hajj and Umrah. The number of domestic and international pilgrims who went for Hajj this year was 1.7 million, up 2 percent on 2025.

“We have experienced a strong Ramadan and a strong Hajj pilgrimage,” Al-Khateeb said. “We’re bouncing back.”

For leisure tourism, the conflict between the US, Israel and Iran could cost GCC countries $32 billion as international visitors decline.

Further reading:

• 100m tourists in Saudi Arabia spend $27bn
• Hajj visitor numbers rise but cost pressures loom
• Riyadh Air takes off but now comes the hard part

Speaking at a separate panel on Thursday, John Pagano, chief executive of Red Sea Global, said the crisis had reduced the number of foreign tourist visits to its resorts.

“The uncertainty around the situation caused them to postpone their visit,” he said, “but it created an opportunity for more domestic visitors to come.”

Visits from Saudis and other GCC citizens “more than compensated for the loss of the international guests,” he said, without giving precise figures.

Jerry Inzerillo, CEO of Diriyah, said visitor numbers had remained strong.

“We didn’t lose a day of occupancy,” he said.