Middle East Tourism: Saudi Arabia Starts Fund to Draw Visitors - Bloomberg:
Saudi Arabia started a fund with an initial capital of $4 billion to develop its tourism industry as the oil-rich kingdom seeks to diversify its economy and attract more foreign travelers.
The Tourism Development Fund will launch a range of equity and debt investment vehicles and has $45 billion in memorandum of understandings signed with private banks, according to a statement. “Funding will be deployed to support mixed-use destinations, to address gaps in the tourism value chain, and to enable technologically-enhanced tourism.”
Saudi Arabia, which last year dropped its strict dress code for foreign women, is seeking to attract holidaymakers and the spending that could help develop the kingdom’s economy away from its reliance on oil. The country expects the tourism industry to contribute more than 10% of its annual GDP and create more than 1 million jobs by 2030.
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