However, plans to transform Saudi Arabia’s hospitality market in line with its Vision 2030 ambitions will take more than the completion of 310,000 hotel rooms, according to global property consultancy Knight Frank.
The delivery of the planned hotel room supply is forecast to cost approximately $110bn, the Knight Frank’s analysis reveals. The partner and head of Middle East Research at Knight Frank, Faisal Durrani, said: “We stand at the precipice of a sea-change for Saudi Arabia’s hospitality landscape – we are moving from vision to reality. The herculean task of transforming Saudi Arabia’s hospitality landscape goes well beyond the delivery of extra hotel room keys. Care and attention must be taken to deliver the correct quantum of products in the right locations.”
Given that this is the biggest hotel supply pipeline ever seen in the region, it will usher in a golden age of hospitality for Saudi Arabia, experts said. The Partner and Head of Hospitality, Tourism, and Leisure at Knight Frank, Turab Saleem, said: “Delivering the vast number of rooms that the kingdom has planned is going to bring with it a number of opportunities. We expect to see the rapid development of a number of parallel industries that will be forced to evolve to cater to the impending influx of visitors. Clearly there will need to be a significant change in the Kingdom’s physical infrastructure, but in parallel, new national carriers will be needed to be rapidly established.”
