Riyadh: The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) aims to attract 3.9 million visitors from China annually by 2030, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported.
China has been one of the most important sources of tourism for Saudi Arabia, which is looking forward to becoming one of the best holiday destinations in the world.
This comes as per the discussion on Tuesday between Fahd Hamidaddin, the CEO and director of the Saudi Tourism Authority, and Rao Quan, the deputy minister of culture and tourism for China.
They discussed how to deepen their strategic relationship in the tourism sector while serving common interests. They also discussed the importance of harmonizing international goals and perspectives through appropriate international organizations.
Quan and Hamidaddin agreed on the terms of signing a memorandum of understanding to speed up the process of attracting Chinese tourist groups. In order to build human capacity for the tourism sector, they also decided to initiate joint tourism efforts between the two countries.
The latest meeting was held within the framework of a promotional tour for the Saudi Tourism Corporation in cooperation with its partners from the Saudi tourism sector in China, in an attempt to highlight Saudi tourist destinations and create partnerships between the tourism sectors in both countries.
The tour started in Beijing before moving on to Shanghai and finally Guangzhou.
The country’s travel agencies, hotels and airlines participated in the event and showed Saudi Arabia as an excellent holiday destination for Chinese travellers.
When Saudi Arabia opened to tourism in 2019, China topped the number of tourist visas issued. In 2019, the country welcomed more than 100,000 Chinese travellers.
In 2022, Saudi Arabia received 93.5 million tourists.
