By- Khalidh Rizwan
16.6 million foreigners visited KSA in 2022
On the World Tourism Organization (WTO) report, Saudi Arabia placed 13th, among the top countries receiving international tourists in 2022. In 2019, it was ranked 25th.
According to the World Tourism Organization, the number of international tourists visiting the Kingdom for whatever reason, reached 16.6 million in 2022.
According to the World Tourism Organization’s World Tourism Barometer report for May 2023, the Kingdom climbed 16 places in the worldwide tourism income index, reaching 11th place in 2022, up from 27th place in 2019.
During the first quarter of 2023, the Kingdom saw growth in the tourism industry, welcoming 7.8 million tourists from around the world for a variety of reasons. This reflects the sector’s best quarterly performance, increasing by 64% from the same time last year. According to the most recent WTO data, the nation also ranked second among the tourist destinations with the quickest rate of growth during that time.
This accomplishment, according to Minister of Tourism Ahmed Al-Khateeb, is an addition to the Kingdom’s previous successes in a number of different industries. It also represents the fruition of the leadership’s directives to keep improving the Kingdom’s standing on the world tourism stage and increasing its GDP contribution in line with Vision 2030 for the Kingdom.
He noted that some of the factors for these successes were streamlining the application process for travel visas, organizing promotional efforts in the target nations, and the variety of tourist locations in the Kingdom.
The minister emphasized that the ministry would continue to work with its partners in the public and commercial sectors to strive for the transformation of the Kingdom into a major destination for international tourism.
The Kingdom achieved a new milestone in the World Economic Forum’s Travel and Tourism Development Index (TTDI), moving up ten positions from 2019 to take 33rd place internationally.