Impact Of Tourism In Saudi Arabia

Introduction

Travel and Tourism contributes greatly in the world economy, it creates and promotes jobs, multiplies exports, and spawns prosperity across the country and region. I will be analysing the Economic, Socio-cultural, and Environmental Impacts of tourism in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Unlike other countries, people are mystified about tourism in that region and specifically Saudi Arabia.

Economic Impacts

Since Saudi Arabia is a country that is usually characterised by stereotypes, conservativeness, and obstinateness, and because Saudi Arabia, pre-2018, used to only issue visas for Hajj and Umrah purposes, people think the Travel and Tourism industry does not contribute much to the economy. In fact, it greatly contributes to the economy through direct, indirect, and induced mediums. The Hajj and Umrah correlates with the establishment of holy sites; more than 3,000,000 pilgrims visited Makkah only in the past year. More than 50% were foreigners requiring accommodation, food and beverages, help and support, security and sanitation, and more. Pilgrims make sure they purchase souvenirs from Makkah and Madinah, and that is because they know it is not easy to visit the country, so they make sure to purchase something of value to refresh their memory and nourish their emotions once they go back home. Saudi Arabia is known to be the country to the prophet of the Muslims. The prophet used to have dates for breakfast, drink Zamzam water, and pray five times a day.

Due to the influence prophet Muhammad had on the Muslim community, whenever muslims visit Makkah or Madinah, they would buy these products in large quantities to take home with them. They even ship what they cannot afford to hold in their baggage. Firstly, I will evaluate the economic impacts of tourism on Saudi Arabia using quantifying data, that will help illustrate and clear the picture on the importance of tourism in that region of the world. Economic factors that are usually taken into consideration when evaluating the effect of tourism in the country are the following:

• Employment
• Income
• Balance of Payments
• Investment & Development

Impact of Tourism in Saudi Arabia Sunday, 7 October 2018

It is crucial to recognise the significant importance of travel and tourism on any country’s economical activity, and specifically Saudi Arabia. There are direct impacts on Saudi Arabia’s economy, and even more importantly, the induced and indirect impacts. I have divided the economical section of this paper based on direct, indirect, and induced. I will be touching on these points using statistics and quantifying data to best clarify.

Direct Contribution

Generally, travel and tourism has an affect on the country’s GDP, more specifically here, the direct contribution of travel and tourism aim to best contemplate the total spending contributed by residents and non-residents for recreational and business purposes. Adding to that, the Saudi government also contributes by setting up travel and tourism services that aim to satisfy the needs and wants of tourists, that can be in form of the new amusement park, parks, private beaches, cultural informative exhibitions, museums, and more.

Indrect & Induced Contributions

The wider and more effective impact on the travel and tourism of Saudi Arabia include the indirect and induced impacts on its economy. To briefly touch on the indirect impacts, we can take a look at the contribution towards GDP and employment. The purchase of advanced aircrafts, renovating hotels and accommodation, and maintenance of airport can be classified as Investment Spendings towards travel and tourism. Since Saudi Arabia is a country that is usually characterised by stereotypes, it must introduce advanced techniques to variate people’s expectations and beliefs. The government allocates a yearly budget towards marketing of holy cities, introducing seasonal promotions (mostly on Hajj and Umrah), sponsored aviation, security (especially during Hajj season), sanitation and cleanliness, and more. Moving forward, especially after introducing tourism schemes for tourists wishing to visit the country itself without referring to religious sites, they will use a macro spending scheme to cover all of what has been mentioned above. Moreover, as mentioned in class, purchase of goods and services produced locally is a major contribution and injection to the economy. For example, for groups touring with an agency, food and beverages can be domestically produced due to its cheapness, locally owned services by Saudi citizens can be contracted by travel agencies, and more. Lastly, the travel and tourism industry requires human capital.

Socio-Cultural Impact

Analysing Saudi Arabia’s tourism industry and its socio-cultural impact on the country can result in positive and negative findings. Keeping the country’s culture and traditions in context, it is very hard to come to a decision around how beneficial is tourism on Saudi’s socio-cultural scope. Many have confronted the government around matters like dress codes, social relationships and religious beliefs, it is because Saudis have for long mixed religion with traditions and developed a cultural view that is quite distinctive compared to the Western world. Examples like drug abuse, alcohol consumption, girls and guys being very comfortable together in public, women wearing short skirts, crop tops, showing of excessive skin, and men wearing shorts above knee level could be concerns of Saudi citizens and residents. It is noticeable that Saudi has grew in the past couple of years with significant progression in the tourism industry; and it was obvious through advancements in infrastructures like hotels, malls, amusement parks, and many tourism facilities that evolve around western ideologies and cultural themed services. That has contributed in decreasing unemployability and injecting money in the economy with Saudi Riyal standing strong.

The noticeable change has kept residents and citizens satisfied with the fact that they have services they did not have before (e. g cinemas), better infrastructure with public transportation and roads, and public facilities. In 2017, when tourism in Saudi hit its highest score since early 21st century, citizens and residents were proud of the fact that they got the opportunity to shed the light on local arts, portrayed their cultural identity in the best image possible, got the chance to clarify stereotypes, exchange of knowledge, skills, and traditional values, exchange of cultural views, and revitalise local traditions. On the other hand, many citizens were greatly concerned about the negative influence tourism had on their family values and sense of community and the impact it had on the morals and values that were interconnected to traditions and religion. Moreover, in Saudi, there is no middle-class, so its either you are very poor or very rich; that has caused a gap in the purchasing power since local rich people spend money abroad but tourists coming to Saudi will obviously show their power of spending and cause economical grievance for locals. Lastly, if tourism keeps increasing in Saudi then locals can then adopt western norms and values which will cause a shift in the local traditional values and ethics.

Environmental Impacts

Saudi government has to understand that economical benefits of tourism cannot outlay the effects it has on the environment. As a result, ecological degradation should be highly considered and taken care of, especially when tourism in the region is increasing in numbers. Reports shed the light on major littering and waste problems from more than 2,000,000 pilgrims in 2017, and that is a report about pilgrims only without angulating the scope on tourists that come for leisure purposes. It is a major problem that most citizens living far away from Makkah and Madinah did not feel due to distance and lack of media attention.

Moreover, many of the recreational projects the tourism institutions in collaboration with the government tourism affairs affect the environment in various ways. Some recreational services and projects can lead to water, land, and air pollution, destruction, and loss. If these factors are negatively affected then on the long-term tourists will no longer be attracted to the country due to its environmental infirmity. For example, in Jeddah, the city that I was born and raised in, local tourists and westerners come to Jeddah to spend time on the Red Sea. They leave behind their garbage and waste that cannot be degradable or recycled, destroying the beach’s scenery and the water’s cleanliness and purity. Moreover, water depletion is another concern we are having as Saudi residents and citizens. Despite the fact that Jeddah is located on the coast of the the Red Sea, due to hot weather and low-to-zero chances of rain per year, fresh water is a major concern for the Saudi population. Tourists cannot handle the hot weather and the Saudi lifestyle without consuming huge sums of water and so fresh water is a current struggle. Traffic congestion is another major problem. Saudi Arabia is a desert country that accommodates extensively hot weather all year long.

As a result, cars and private transportation facilities is something you must consider having when arriving to Saudi. Saudi Arabia is home for more than 32 million people that require cars on a daily basis, so when the season is high and tourists come from all over Saudi and the rest of the world, traffic congestion becomes unbearable. That has greatly affected locals trying to commute on daily basis, especially when having no other transportation mediums. Despite all the negative impacts tourism has on the environment, tourism has greatly contributed in the development of recreational services, reinforcement of infrastructures, increase in level of employment, and an increase in the standards of living. Lastly, it has contributed in the increase of educational standards and levels along with strikes to protect the wildlife.