Riyadh: The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) topped the Group of Twenty (G20) countries in the flow rate of international tourists arriving during the first seven months of the year 2022, according to the latest reports issued by the World Tourism Organization.
This was announced during the Tourism Ministers’ Meeting of the Group of 20 countries for the year 2022, which was held under the chairmanship of Indonesia, and in which ministers from various countries participated around the world under the slogan “Together we recover stronger”.
A report issued by the World Tourism Organization showed that the number of international arrivals to Saudi Arabia increased by 121 percent during the period from January to July 2022, compared to 2019, topping the group of twenty countries in the number of international arrivals.
Commenting on the report, Ahmed Al-Khatib, Minister of Tourism, said that Saudi Arabia’s leadership confirms the wise leadership’s policy of empowering the national economy and raising the tourism sector’s contribution to the gross domestic product, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported.
He further adds that the organization’s report indicated that the rate of tourism spending in the Kingdom far exceeded the levels before the COVID-19 pandemic.
He pointed out that the sector is currently witnessing a rapid recovery from the consequences of the pandemic, especially with the lifting of precautionary and preventive measures after the rate of HIV infections decreased to low levels.
The Ministry of Tourism said on its Twitter account, “We are pleased with this achievement, which is the culmination of the leadership’s efforts to achieve the goals of the Saudi Vision 2030, which seeks to place the Kingdom among the most prominent global tourism destinations.”
According to the organization’s report, Turkey came second in the ranking with the stability of the number of visitors, while the rest of the countries recorded a decrease in the number of international arrivals during the period from January to July 2022.
The number of international arrivals for the entire group of countries decreased by 23 percent, and the following table shows the percentage of change in the number of international arrivals during the period from January to July 2022.
