#Saudi Wealth Fund Commits $3 Billion to Build Mountain Resort - Bloomberg

Saudi Wealth Fund Commits $3 Billion to Build Mountain Resort - Bloomberg

Soudah mountains in southern Saudi Arabia 

Source: Soudah Development Co.

Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund will invest almost $3 billion on a tourism project in a mountainous region near the kingdom’s border with Yemen.

The Public Investment Fund will provide 11 billion riyals to Soudah Development Co., which will build 2,700 hotel rooms and 1,300 homes in an area that includes Al-Soudah, the tallest peak in Saudi Arabia, according to Husameddin AlMadani, Soudah’s chief executive officer.

The kingdom has been largely shut off to foreign tourists for decades, while citizens preferred to go on holiday abroad. That’s changed with the rise of de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, who’s trying to open up the country and diversify the economy from oil.

“Many of us living in Saudi Arabia didn’t know this destination existed,” AlMadani said in an interview. “I lived in Riyadh for thirty years before I knew that I could take an hour flight and see this beautiful place.”