Inbound tourism spending in Saudi Arabia rises 12% in 8M

Inbound tourism spending in Saudi Arabia rose 12 percent year-on-year (YoY) to SAR 77.3 billion in the first eight months of 2019, a recent report from the Tourism Information and Research Center (MAS) showed.

Inbound tourism expenditure in August jumped 23 percent YoY to SAR 33.7 billion, driven by Hajj season.

Domestic tourism spending in Saudi Arabia amounted to SAR 33.8 billion by the end of August 2019, up from SAR 31.1 billion a year earlier.

On the other hand, outbound tourism spending declined 6 percent YoY to SAR 49.3 billion in the eight-month period.

Inbound tourism trips totaled 12.6 million in the first eight months of 2019, a rise of 11 percent YoY.

Outbound tourist trips saw a 6 percent YoY decrease to 14.5 million.

Total nights spent by inbound tourists in the Kingdom in the same period reached 146.6 million, an increase of 12 percent YoY.

Total nights spent by outbound tourists dropped 5 percent YoY to 231.1 million.