According to new figures released by the World Tourism Organisation (WTO), over 18 million tourists visited Saudi Arabia in 2022, so far, with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) following second at 14.8 million tourists, and Morocco coming third at 11 million tourists.
Meanwhile, 8.5 million tourists visited Syria, 5.7 million visited Tunisia, 5.2 million visited Egypt, 4.3 million visited Bahrain and 3.5 million visited Jordan.
Next came Algeria, Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen, Sudan, Palestine and, at the very bottom, Kuwait with 203,000 tourists.
The report of its ascendancy in the field of tourism in the Arab world comes as a particularly positive one for Saudi Arabia, as it has been targeting its tourism industry in recent years, especially following the decline of the Covid-19 pandemic and the revival of the global travel industry.
Tourism is one of the major pillars of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030, in which it aims to diversify its economy away from oil.
As part of that vision, Riyadh has set itself the target of an annual tourist influx of 100 million visitors by the year 2030.
Tags: Saudi Arabia, World Tourism Organisation (WTO), Tourism
