Expo 2030 to create 250,000 jobs, Saudi minister says

Reuters/Ahmed Yosri

Saudi Arabia will generate 250,000 jobs during its hosting of Expo 2030 in Riyadh, tourism minister Ahmed Al Khateeb said.

The kingdom will add 1,000 hotel rooms for the mega event, the state-run Saudi Press Agency reported, citing the minister’s speech at the Global Labor Market Conference in Riyadh.

Riyadh beat off bids from Busan in South Korea and Rome in Italy.

• $92bn plan to make Riyadh greener for Expo 2030
• Riyadh can become a global city – with a little more effort
• Riyadh Expo 2030 to spur giga-project construction

Last month, 119 countries endorsed Riyadh’s candidacy during the 173rd general assembly of the Bureau International des Expositions held in Paris.

The World Expo 2030 will be held under the theme “The Era of Change: Together for a Foresighted Tomorrow”, between October 1, 2030, and March 31, 2031.

The kingdom unveiled its national tourism strategy in 2019, which will take the gross domestic product in this sector from three percent to 10 percent in 2030 and create one million additional jobs.

Al Khateeb stated that the travel and tourism sector represented 10 percent of the global labour market and provided 330 million jobs in 2019 before the pandemic.

However, airlines and hotels were the most affected sectors globally, losing 60 million jobs.

“We are back in the pre-pandemic according to figures by the United Nations World Tourism Organisation, and the World Travel and Tourism Council, which is good,” he stated.