Country Overview: Saudi Arabia hotels to boom in 2023 [Infographic]

Pictured: Rendering of Radisson Makkah Thakher City development guestrooms. Imagery courtesy of Radisson Hotel Group.

A massive 80 hotel projects are scheduled for completion in Saudi Arabia next year, according to the TOPHOTELPROJECTS database.

The Middle Eastern kingdom’s hotel construction rate is due to nearly treble in 2023, with nearly 50% of the 167 projects we have on file due for delivery within those 12 months.

Saudi surge

Altogether, 56% (35,884) of the 63,753 Saudi Arabian rooms in the database will come online next year, far dwarfing the 9,207 keys from this year’s 24 projects. Development returns to near this rate in 2024, with 23 projects delivering 9,599 rooms, while 2025 and beyond sees at least another 40 hotels representing 9,063 keys joining the market.

First class four star properties number 77 projects and 30,229 rooms – 46% of the total, with the remaining 54% in the luxury five star segment, equating to 90 builds comprising 33,524 keys.

Mecca moves

A significant proportion of the development wave is due to a number of megaprojects taking shape in Makkah (Mecca). While in terms of pure project totals, the 27 hotels slated for the Islamic holy centre only put it third on our top Saudi cities list, the 31,957 keys which will become available in the area is more than three times that of our number one by project number – that’s Riyadh, with 45 hotels totalling 9,302 rooms.

Second in this analysis is Jeddah, with 33 projects delivering 7,148 rooms, while fourth in the list is Al Wajh, representing 12 projects of collectively 4,868 keys.

Biggest brands

The hotel names making the most headway in the country are headed by Holiday Inn Hotels & Resorts, with nine projects resulting in 5,154 rooms. Joint runners-up are Hilton Hotels & Resorts and Radisson Blu Hotels & Resorts, both with six newbuilds, but the former adding 2,483 keys and the latter welcoming 1,063 rooms to its portfolio.

The Radisson Hotel Group itself is one of the Mecca megaproject proponents, with three hotels within the Thakher Makkah urban development completing in Q3 2023. Park Inn by Radisson Makkah Thakher City Tower West, Park Inn by Radisson Makkah Thakher City Tower East and Radisson Hotel Makkah Thakher City will add a total of 992 rooms and apartments, doubling the group’s portfolio in the city.

Thakher Development Co is partnering with both UAE’s Skidmore Owings & Merrill and Italy’s BMS Progetti on the architecture, along with a group of consultants comprising Linesight Bahrain, Khatib & Alami, EDSA, SAK Consultant, Amsad Architectural Associates, Proger Saudi Arabia, Zuhair Fayez Partnership Consultant, Dar Al Omran and Creative Engineering Consultants India.

Many TOPHOTELNEWS articles draw on exclusive information from the TOPHOTELPROJECTS construction database. This subscription-based product includes details of thousands of hotel projects around the world, along with the key decision-makers behind them. Please note, our data may differ from records held by other organisations. Generally, the database focuses on four- and five-star schemes of significant scale; tracks projects in either the vision, pre-planning, planning, under-construction, pre-opening or newly opened phase; and covers newbuilds, extensions, refurbishments and conversions.

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