Saudi Arabia tops global tourism revenues growth in Q1 2025

Saudi Arabia ranked first globally in international tourism revenue growth during the first quarter of 2025, compared to the same period in 2019, according to the May 2025 edition of the UN World Tourism Organization’s Tourism Barometer.

According to the report, Saudi Arabia ranked third globally in terms of the growth in the number of international tourists during Q1 2025, compared to Q1 2019. It also ranked second in the Middle East for the same period.

The Kingdom recorded a 102% growth in the number of international tourists during Q1 2025, compared to the same period in 2019, far surpassing the global average growth rate of 3% and the Middle East’s average growth of 44%.

This performance underpins Saudi Arabia’s global and regional leadership in the tourism landscape.

For his part, Minister of Tourism Ahmed Al Khateeb stated on social networking platform “X” that this achievement reflected Saudi Arabia’s advancing position in the tourism sector, backed by its leadership.

This came thanks to working with a teamwork spirit to achieving the goals of Saudi Vision 2030, said the minister, expressing optimism for further growth and enhanced positioning for the Kingdom on the global tourism map.

According to data available with Argaam, the Ministry of Tourism revealed earlier that Saudi Arabia achieved a record surplus from travel in its balance of payments during Q1 2025, reaching nearly SAR 26.8 billion, driven by spending from incoming international visitors.

Spending by inbound visitors to Saudi Arabia during Q1 2025 reached SAR 49.4 billion, a growth of about 10% year-on-year.