Saudi Arabia moved up 10 places to 33rd in the world overall, in the 2021 World Economic Forum (WEF) Travel and Tourism Development Index, which was released yesterday at Davos.
The independent index benchmarks 117 countries on 17 pillars crucial to the development and resilience of their travel and tourism industries. Saudi Arabia moved from 43rd in 2019 to 33rd in 2021, the second largest rise in rankings, as a result of improvements across almost all indicators. This is the first report to be produced since Saudi Arabia opened for international tourism in September 2019.
In 2019, Saudi Arabia launched the National Tourism Strategy, a clear plan to drive forward the aims of Vision 2030. These aims will increase the contribution of the tourism sector to 10% of GDP, create 1million new jobs, and attract 100 million local and international visits annually by 2030.
