RIYADH: According to government figures, Saudi Arabia’s tourist industry steadily increased employment in the second quarter of 2024, with employment rising 5.1 percent year over year to 959,175 workers. The General Authority for Statistics said that the sector’s workforce increased 1.57 percent on a quarterly basis, indicating that the industry is still growing. By the end of June, 245,905 Saudi citizens worked in the tourism industry, making up 25.6 percent of the total, while 74.4 percent, or 713,270, were foreigners.
As part of its Vision 2030 economic diversification policy, which intends to draw 150 million visitors annually by the end of the decade, the surge underscores the Kingdom’s swift transition into a major international tourist destination. According to GASTAT data, employment in the tourism industry accounted for 5.7% of all jobs in the second quarter, which was 0.2 percentage points less than the same time the previous year.
8.6% of jobs in the private sector were in the tourism sector, a decrease of 0.5 percentage points from the previous year. Further dissecting the demographics, the industry was dominated by male employees (831,076), with a total of 128,099 female employees.
The hotel industry in Saudi Arabia also saw improvements, according to GASTAT, with occupancy rates increasing to 55.4 percent in the second quarter, up 0.5 percentage points over the previous year. Guests’ average stay duration increased by 17.6% to 5.2 nights.
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