High number of tourists for Saudi Arabia in 2023

Saudi Arabia inaugurated a general tourism visa only in 2019, just months before the coronavirus pandemic decimated the industry globally. — AFP

Saudi Arabia drew 27 million foreign tourists in 2023 and has more than doubled its goal for the end of the decade, an official said recently.

The announcement came less than five years after the Gulf kingdom fully opened up to tourism and as fears persist that the ongoing Israel-Hamas war could engulf the wider region.