Riyadh: The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia does not plan to lift a ban on serving alcohol and despite the current restrictions in place, it continues to attract tourists and excelled at the global level, assistant minister of tourism Princess Haifa bint Mohammed said.
Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the spokesperson of the kingdom, would not move to change laws banning alcohol.
“The short answer is that we’re going to continue with our current laws,” Princess Haifa was answering a question at a panel session on reports that serving alcohol could be allowed at NEOM, a Saudi futuristic mega-project.
“Saudi Arabia has been very transparent on where it stands on everything, we were very clear and we even heard it from our head of state on where we stand on serving alcohol”.
“We have been out outperforming globally in tourism with what we currently have to offer today,” Haifa concluded.
Tourism in Saudi Arabia despite an alcohol ban:
Saudi Arabia climbed ten places in the 2021 Travel and Tourism Development Index issued by the World Economic Forum, which measures the sustainable and resilient development of the sector, and was released this week at the Davos Summit.
The Kingdom ranked second in the Middle East after the United Arab Emirates.
Saudi Arabia hopes to boost tourism by creating new tourist destinations such as NEOM, the Red Sea, and Qiddiya to offer a wide range of leisure and entertainment options that rely on natural resources such as the sun and the sea.
