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Saudi Red Sea coral

Red Sea coral to get extra protection from tourists

Saudi Arabia has vowed to implement a series of measures to protect its Red Sea coral reef over the next five years as it pushes ahead with major tourism projects in the area. But experts have warned that Saudi coral remains at risk, even with major spending policies.  According to the National Red Sea Sustainability […]

Construction is well underway at King Salman Park in Riyadh. Developments in the city may take priority over giga-projects elsewhere

World Cup and Expo wins divert funding to Riyadh

Saudi Arabia’s giga-projects have slowed down because of financing constraints – and now the government’s unexpected success in bidding for global events is redirecting even more resources towards Riyadh.  Even prestigious developments such as Neom, the $500 billion futuristic city in north-west Saudi Arabia, are taking second place. The priority is turning the capital into […]

Visitors to the Mipim property conference look at images of the Mukaab, which will be the centrepiece of New Murabba in Riyadh

New Murabba CEO promises Riyadh district’s core by 2030

The New Murabba giga-project, which aims to create a 19-sq-km city district in Riyadh, will be up and running by December 2030, its CEO said this week.  Michael Dyke told a tourism forum in Dubai: “What’s important is to say that New Murabba is real, tangible today. It’s physically there, it’s not something on a piece […]

The St Regis at The Red Sea is one of Red Sea Global's 79 hotels across two locations

Red Sea Global seeks more credit and considers IPO

Saudi giga-project Red Sea Global is looking for a second credit facility and may consider an initial public offering by 2030, a senior official said this week. That will come after it has two dozen hotels in operation by the end of next year. “An IPO or real estate investment trust, you tend to begin […]

Red Sea hotels Desert Rock, 'a hotel that’s literally built into the side of the mountain', is expected to open this year

Red Sea Global to open 19 luxury hotels in 2025

Red Sea Global, the Saudi giga-project, is due to open 19 new luxury hotels in 2025, it was revealed this week. It will also be opening two hotels this year, including one carved into a mountainside, an official said. “2023 saw us opening our first resort, and in 2024 we’ve opened another two resorts and […]

A concept image of the Thuwal island resort. New hotels there are due to open in weeks

Red Sea Global to open Thuwal island resort in weeks

Saudi giga-project Red Sea Global will open hotels at a second site within weeks and more at a third location will open next year, the luxury resort developer said this week.  The company, a subsidiary of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), will open a private island called Thuwal just north of Jeddah, followed by […]

The 'world-class wellness' resorts will include Six Senses The 'world-class wellness' resorts will include Six Senses Amaala, designed by architects U+A

Eight sites to open at Amaala Red Sea resort in 2025

Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea giga-project Amaala is to open its first phase in 2025 with seven resorts and a yacht club, the company said this week.  Red Sea Global – the Public Investment Fund project that owns Amaala – said the resorts to open would be Clinique La Prairie Health Resort, Jayasom Wellness Resort, Rosewood […]

Nujuma, operated by Ritz Carlton, is the third Red Sea Global resort to open to visitors

Saudi Red Sea resorts aim for 19m tourists by 2030

Saudi Arabia hopes to attract 19 million tourists a year to its Red Sea giga-projects and other resorts being built along the country’s west coast.  Mohammed Al Nasser, CEO of the Saudi Red Sea Authority, said it intends to issue licences for up to 60 marinas over the next two years. It recently licensed six […]

People swim in Iceland's Blue Lagoon hot spring in front of a geothermal power plant. Reykjavik Geothermal is working with Taqa in Saudi Arabia

Saudi summons energy to unearth geothermal potential

A Saudi Arabian university has completed drilling a research well as the kingdom steps up efforts to harness its geothermal potential – which industry experts estimate could free up to 1 million barrels of oil a day for export. The 400m deep observation well was drilled by a team from King Abdullah University of Science […]

Tourists visit the tombs of the Nabatean civilisation in AlUla. Saudi Arabia's goal is for tourism to make up 10 percent of GDP by 2030

Affluent tourists around the globe on Saudi Arabia’s radar

Saudi Arabia will invest more than $800 billion in its main giga-projects by the next decade as part of a tourism expansion strategy focused on affluent tourists in China, India and Europe.  The kingdom’s tourism minister Ahmed Al-Khateeb, speaking at the Qatar Investment Forum, said: “We’re building and investing in major destinations like Neom, Red […]

Last year, there was a 29 percent increase in international tourist arrivals to the GCC compared to 2022

Why ‘over-tourism’ offers an opportunity for the GCC

The GCC region and its North African neighbour Egypt can reap the rewards of over-tourism across the globe, according to industry experts, with affordability playing a key role in fuelling the sector’s growth. The number of hotel rooms in the six countries of the GCC – Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia and the UAE […]

Saudi Arabia's Red Sea International Airport will be the gateway to an area with 50 resorts

Red Sea airport prepares for first international visitors

Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea International Airport will record its first international visitors this month when a flight from Dubai arrives on April 18. Red Sea Global, the developer behind regenerative tourism destinations The Red Sea and Amaala, said the flight, operated by Flydubai, marks the start of a new twice-weekly route.  Regular domestic flights operated […]

An artist's impression of the stainless steel villas at Shebara, Red Sea Global's latest luxury resort

Red Sea Global says first hotels are open

Red Sea Global, one of Saudi Arabia’s main giga-projects, said this week it has opened two hotels.  Ben Edwards, group head of cost, commercial and procurement, said in a conference call on March 20 that Six Senses and St. Regis hotels had opened at the Red Sea Global site south of the remote town of […]

Oman's new economic zone will span more than 20 sq km

Foreign expertise vital for Saudi construction

Saudi Arabia’s construction industry needs more foreign involvement if achieving its Vision 2030 goals is to become a reality, according to attendees of the Big 5 conference in Riyadh. In the first half of 2023 alone $44 billion worth of new projects were awarded in the kingdom’s $140 billion construction sector, according to real estate […]

A tourist with an arabian foal at Alhazm stud, Khubash, Saudi Arabia. 106m tourists visited the kingdom last year

Saudi Arabia hits tourism target seven years early

More than 106 million tourists visited Saudi Arabia last year, surpassing the kingdom’s 2030 target and prompting it to set a new goal of welcoming 150 million annual visitors by the end of the decade, according to the Ministry of Tourism. Achieving the milestone target of the Vision 2030 economic roadmap seven years early cements […]

A coral reef off Yabou' Island, part of Neom. The project aims to use mostly recycled materials and send zero waste to landfill

Gulf’s recycling industry grows with mega-projects

The volume of Gulf construction projects will increase the use of recycled materials, the head of the Bureau of Middle East Recycling has told AGBI.  Ibrahim Aboura, who is also managing director of Aboura Metals in Dubai and a committee chairman of the Bureau of International Recycling (BIR), added that it will also raise the […]

A worker looks out at Riyadh from a tower under construction in the city

Big 5 builders seek answers to Saudi’s $1.5trn question

Saudi Arabia’s mammoth pipeline of giga-projects was the focus of the Big 5 Global conference in Dubai this week, as the region’s main construction players discussed how to juggle fast-approaching 2030 deadlines with the kingdom’s push for sustainable development. Saudi Arabia has signed off on $78 billion of construction projects so far this year, up […]

RedSea claim their heat-blocking roof technology can reduce energy usage and water use in irrigation

RedSea to dig further into Egypt’s agricultural market

RedSea, an agtech business based in Saudi Arabia, is prioritising Egypt to transform the North African nation’s agricultural industry. The company has also announced the appointment of Bruno De Oliveira as vice president of Egypt and East Africa as a result of increasing customer demand for its products.   RedSea has already installed heat-blocking roofing materials […]

Saudi Arabian billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal

Kingdom Holding ups stake in Citigroup with Alwaleed deal

Kingdom Holding Company has increased its investment in Citigroup after buying a $450 million stake from its Saudi Arabian billionaire chairman, Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal. The deal has raised Kingdom’s stake to 2.2 percent from 1.63 percent, according to a filing on the Saudi Stock Exchange on Wednesday. The company did not disclose any further […]

Giga-projects include the city of Neom and the Red Sea Project and Amaala tourist resorts

Saudi construction contracts balloon since 2015 

Saudi Arabia has signed off on $78 billion of construction projects so far this year, up 42 percent from $54.5 billion in 2015, just before the announcement of the Vision 2030 project.  The statistics, provided by the Saudi Contractors Authority (Scavo), show the total value of ongoing projects as of the end of October at […]