Habitas, a luxury hotel brand, experiential travel lodging and experience company, has received US$400 million from the Saudi government and investment community as the Kingdom builds up its travel and tourism industry for a wave of international visitors in the coming years.
According to Bloomberg, the money has been invested through a ‘Habitas Fund’, created by The Saudi Tourism Development Fund [TDF], to potentially help the company’s expansion across the Kingdom and attract more tourists, although no specific details have been disclosed on how the investment will be spent.
The company, which also specialises in events and started out building glamping-style campsites for the Burning Man festival in the Nevada festival, is reportedly planning to expand from two existing sites to six, in potential destinations such as Jeddah and the capital city Riyadh, as well as other sites along the Red Sea coast.
Having been launched by British entrepreneur Oliver Ripley and his partners in 2016, Habitas currently owns two properties in Saudi Arabia – the Habitas AlUla resort [since 2021] and a caravan campsite in a ‘living museum’ giga-project. The brand has scaled significantly in the last two years especially, with hotel openings in Saudi Arabia, Mexico and Namibia, and it is aiming to bring new international and domestic travellers to its resorts, based on an ethos around sustainability, community empowerment and local storytelling.
Habitas AlUla features three luxury tiers and 96 guest rooms, including the premium villa offerings Celestial Villas, Alcove Villas and Canyon Villas, as well as a yoga deck, fitness centre, restaurant and swimming pool.
