Saudi Arabia makes Jeddah a hotel hotspot for 2030 vision

Pictured: Rixos Obhur Jeddah.

Saudi Arabia is pushing forward with its grand Vision 2030 plan by investing in its hotel infrastructure.

The Middle Eastern kingdom’s far-reaching strategy is an attempt to diversify its economy and reduce its dependence on oil by boosting other industries such as tourism.

Visitor experience priority

In fact tourism is at the heart of Vision 2030’s National Transformation Program, with Marcel Stephan, visitor experience advisor at the Saudi Tourism Authority, telling Visit Saudi: “We have set ourselves the mission to make the experience of visitors a top priority and improve year by year.”

One of the ways the country is enacting this mission is by bolstering its luxury hotel stock, with Jeddah being one of the areas that efforts are coalescing around.

Luxury and upscale additions

According to data from TOPHOTELPROJECTS, more than 7,000 rooms will come online in the Red Sea coastal city over the next few years.

With at least 34 separate developments underway, upscale and luxury segments will be well-served in Jeddah, breaking down as 19 four star and 14 five star hotels.

In terms of pipeline pace, just three sites are due to complete by the end of this year, while 2023 will see 14 additions. Only one each in 2024 and 2025 are slated, while the remaining 14 projects’ opening dates are still to be decided.

Major projects

The Marriott International group is particularly active in the municipality, with five hotels under development across the Residence Inn, Marriott Hotels & Resorts, Edition, Delta and Courtyard brands. Close behind is Hilton Worldwide, with two DoubleTree and two Hilton Garden Inns in progress, while Millennium & Copthorne and IHG Hotels & Resorts are in joint third place, each scheduling three additions throughout their respective groups.

Notable sites include the 500-room Hyatt Regency Jeddah Serafi Mall opening in Q4 2023. The 19-storey hotel will be well-equipped with guestrooms and residences, a lobby lounge designed for productivity, two diverse dining options, a signature ballroom equipped with facilities synonymous with the Hyatt Regency brand, and wellness and fitness facilities.

Elsewhere, Rixos is upgrading and restyling Makarem Annakheel Village into Rixos Obhur Jeddah, a fully-fledged tourist resort complete with an array of family-friendly, five-star facilities such as a water park, swimming pools and villas with private pools. The 174-room site will reopen in Q3 2023.

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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