Jeddah – The Ministry of Tourism figures show that most foreign tourists arrive in Saudi Arabia from the Gulf countries. In the first half of this year, 44.8 lakh tourists from Gulf countries visited Saudi Arabia. 41.3 lakhs from Asia, 30.3 lakhs from the Middle East, 13.8 lakhs from Europe, 13.5 lakhs from Africa, 2.1 lakhs from America and about ten thousand people from other countries visited Saudi Arabia during the six months from January to the end of June. 1.46 crore foreign tourists came to the country in six months.
During this period, 31 percent of the foreign tourists who came to the country were from the Gulf, 28 percent from Asian countries, 21 percent from the Middle East, nine percent from Europe, nine percent from Africa, more than one percent from America and more than 0.1 percent from other countries. Spending by tourists rose to 4,610 crore Rials in June. This is an all-time record. Prior to this, the record was set in August 2019 in tourism sector expenditure. In August 2019, tourists spent 4,290 crore riyals in Saudi Arabia. This record was broken in June.
Foreign tourists contributed 2,713 crore riyals and domestic tourists contributed 1,900 crore riyals in the expenditure of tourists in June. Foreign tourists accounted for 58.8 percent and domestic tourists accounted for 41.2 percent of June tourism spending. Compared to June 2022, there was a 630 percent growth in foreign tourist spending and 217 percent growth in domestic tourist spending in June last year.
Tourists spent 15,000 crore riyals in the first quarter of this year. Of this, 8,690 crore Riyals are contributed by foreign tourists and 6,310 crores by domestic tourists. A 63 percent growth was recorded in the expenditure of tourists. In the second quarter, the expenditure of tourists increased to 8,420 crore Rials. This is an all-time record.
In the first half of this year, 2.9 million foreign tourists visited Saudi Arabia for entertainment purposes. In the first half of last year, 6,56,000 foreigners came to Saudi Arabia for entertainment purposes. Compared to this, the number of foreign tourists who came for entertainment purposes increased by 350 percent during the first six months of this year. In the first half of this year, 20 percent of the foreign tourists who visited Saudi Arabia were for entertainment purposes. 45 percent came to the country with religious motives. 65.9 lakh foreigners came to Saudi Arabia for religious reasons in six months. The rest visited Saudi Arabia for business, family visits, shopping and sports.
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2023-12-21 11:06:12
