Riyadh wants the world to visit the ‘Arabian Highlands’ of Aseer

May 8, 2025, 3:28 PM

Cars navigate the winding roads of the Aseer mountains. Most visitors hail from the GCC but Saudi Arabia hopes to increase the number of international tourists

Province marketed as affordable
Climate and nature are major draws
$7bn investment in the pipeline

The streets of Abha become festooned with lilacs and mauves throughout May, when the city’s 25,000 jacaranda trees come into bloom. Pockets of purple burst throughout the hilltop capital of the southern province of Aseer, bringing an increasing number of tourists.

Aseer’s botanical diversity has helped it become the fastest growing tourism prospect in Saudi Arabia and a major part of the country’s efforts to become a year-round holiday destination.

Last year the province had 8 million visitors, double the number of pre-Covid tourists. This rise looks set to continue. The current target is for Aseer to reach 9.1 million visitors in the next five years, part of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 diversification targets.

Officials say they expect that threshold to be raised shortly, with inbound tourism likely to increase following big infrastructure investment projects.

Roughly the size of the UAE, Aseer is in the far south of Saudi Arabia close to Yemen. Despite making up only 4 percent of the kingdom it is home to 60 percent of its forests.

Its coastline stretches for 125 kilometres along the Red Sea, although mountains make up a third of the province. Its rivers, lakes and farmland make it the most topographically diverse province in a country largely subsumed by the Arabian Desert.

Farmers in Aseer province still use traditional methods in areas inaccessible to modern machinery

“It gives us a unique positioning,” says Hatim Alharbi, chief of tourism destinations at the Aseer Development Authority. “Because we start from the sea, we have islands and we have a coastline. And we have the highest peaks in the Arabian Peninsula. We also have deserts.”

Aseer markets itself in particular to Saudi and Gulf nationals, especially in the hotter months of the year.

The province has an average year-round temperature of 10C although its varied elevation means that “in two days, you can experience the four seasons of the year,” according to Alharbi.

“You can be in the sea swimming, and then, after a couple of hours, you can be wearing your jacket in the highest peaks.”

Mountain baboons in Aseer. Many of the tourists who visit the province are family groups — Mountain baboons in Aseer. Most tourists who visit the province stay for about a week

Aseer’s mountains, where coffee trees are grown, are a major draw. “We call them the Arabian Highlands. When it’s in the high 30s in the summer in Europe, it’s in the low 20s in Aseer,” says Fahd Hamidaddin, CEO of the Saudi Tourism Authority.

Unlike many other destinations in Saudi Arabia, such as Red Sea Global and AlUla, Aseer is predominantly marketed as an affordable holiday site. Many tourists are families, arriving from Riyadh, Dubai and elsewhere and staying for around a week.

Currently, 90 percent of Aseer’s visitors hail from Saudi Arabia and the GCC, although Alharbi hopes that the number from elsewhere will increase. Abha’s King Khalid University Stadium will host games for the Fifa World Cup in 2034, which the tourism board hopes will put the city on the international stage.

The Aseer Development Authority says it has attracted $1.5 billion of investment already and has close to $7 billion more in the pipeline.

“The private sector is seeing growth year in and year out,” says Hamidaddin.

Central to this is the New Abha Airport. The current airport can currently serve just 1.5 million travellers each year. Expansion work is underway to increase this capacity to 13 million, with 90,000 flights a year connecting Abha with 250 destinations. Its opening is scheduled for 2028.

“The airport is going to witness a massive transformation,” says Hamidaddin, “and it will become a globally international destination year long.”