Riyadh Season 2021-22 is here to redefine entertainment and bring you the best of food, music, and culture in 14 zones. For a total of 5 months, the Riyadh Season festival is set to entertain people from around the world and within the Kingdom with the display of art, adventure, and pop culture. The event was first hosted in 2019 and was quite a hit among public as well tourists. The first Season hosted various events like WWE Crown Jewel, BTS Concert, Comic-Con, and more. This year, the festival is kicking the tourism in Riyadh by attracting large crowds. In fact just in the beginning of the festival—from October to November 2021—the occupancy rate in Riyadh hotels shot up by an astounding 90%. The number is only going to increase as predicted by the tourism experts and analysts.
Background: To make Vision 2030 of Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman a reality, The Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage launched a unique initiative, the Saudi Seasons. The program identifies 11 seasons, including Riyadh Season as a way to a boost modern tourism activities in Saudi Arabia. Riyadh Season is a big part of this promotion project. Besides year round celebrations in different zones, Saudi Arabia has established international offices for tourism in prominent countries such as Russia and China to promote these seasons.
The events attracted swarms of enthusiasts and tourists from around the world. Following the footsteps of the previous season, the expectations are that Riyadh Season 2021-22 will pull an exceptional number of tourists.
Riyadh Season boosts Hotel Occupancy Rate to 90%
The Riyadh Season started on 20th October 2021 and will last until March 2022. With a projection of a total of 20 million attendees, the Riyadh Season will be larger than ever. The Season has an event area of 5 million and 400,000 square meters. Around 7,500 events will happen in 14 different zones. So far, the ongoing season pushed the occupancy rate of hotels in Riyadh by an astounding 90% from October to November 2021.
Different visa options offered to citizens of 49 countries is one of the main reasons these steep numbers. Since September 2019, Saudi has announced the openings of numerous megaprojects to boost tourism. Further, it also declared the $530 million funds to be invested in the development of primary tourist destinations in the country. The city of Riyadh is aiming to increase the GDP contribution from 3% to 10% and steer the dependence of the economy on oil to other sectors.
The Projections
In March, Euromonitor International, a marketing research firm, estimated that Saudi Arabia’s expenditure on inbound tourism by 2025 will be around $25.3 billion, post-recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. The hope given by the domestic tourism in the pandemic is putting a high cap on expectations for Saudi Tourism. Modernization of Riyadh in the past few years has led Avalanche, a theme park located in the city, to bag two records from the Guinness Book of World Records. It has the world’s tallest fun slide and the most lanes in a slide. Riyadh is going all-in when it comes to providing entertainment of different sorts. From family leisure areas and cinemas to luxury hotels and restaurants, it has become a perfect tourist destination for tourists worldwide.
Besides the growth, authorities are keeping a check on the spread of COVID-19 due to these advancements and events via a fast-track app known as Tawakkalana. All combined, Riyadh Seasons is helping the travel, hotel, restaurants and other hospitality industries bloom at an unprecedented rate.
