Assistant Minister of Tourism, Haifa bint Muhammad Al Saud, confirmed that the Kingdom will not change the laws that prohibit alcohol on its lands, at a time when it announced an increase in the number of tourists to its country.
Reply to A questionPrincess Haifa, during her participation in a dialogue session at the Davos Economic Forum in Switzerland, regarding recent press reports that the city of “NEOM” may consider the issue of serving alcohol, Princess Haifa said: “I am happy to answer this question, the Saudis are transparent about their status, yes, We’ve heard questions like that even from heads of state, about when we’re going to introduce alcohol, in short, we’ll continue to enforce existing laws.”
She stressed that the Kingdom, despite the current restrictions in place, continued to attract tourists and excelled at the global level.
She said: “The current laws are good, and we are competitive. We have exceeded the levels of tourism globally with what is currently in place. A lot can be done without introducing any new things.”
Video | Assistant Minister of Tourism: #The kingdom It will not change the laws that prohibit alcohol..and despite the current restrictions in place, it has continued to attract tourists and has excelled at the global level#Kingdom_in_Davos #news pic.twitter.com/Wu43UgavOZ
– News Channel (@alekhbariyatv) May 25, 2022
She noted that Saudi Arabia ranked second in the Economic Forum’s report on tourism progress, which was launched on Tuesday.
And the Saudi Press Agency reported, on Wednesday, that the Kingdom jumped globally to 33rd place in the Travel and Tourism Development Index (TTDI) issued by the World Economic Forum (WEF), advancing ten places compared to 2019.
Saudi Arabia opened its doors to tourism in 2019, and the reception of tourists from different countries of the world resumed after easing the precautionary restrictions related to Corona.
The Kingdom achieved a growth of 34% in the number of domestic tourism trips compared to 2019, according to the official agency.
“In 2019, when we launched the national tourism strategy, we started with 41 million visits in 2018, including religious visits as basic visits, and we ended in 2021 with 63 million visits. We not only recovered but also achieved an increase, most of which are driven by local tourism,” the Assistant Minister of Tourism said at the Davos Forum.