Saudi Arabia’s licensed tourism hospitality facilities rose 22.7 percent year on year to 6,122 in the first quarter of 2026, as the Kingdom continued expanding accommodation capacity to support its growing tourism sector TurkicWorld reports via arabnews.
Data released by the General Authority for Statistics showed serviced apartments and other hospitality facilities accounted for 3,159 licensed establishments, or 51.6 percent of the total, while hotels numbered 2,963, representing 48.4 percent.
Strengthening the hospitality sector is a key goal of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030, as the Kingdom aims to become a global tourism hub by the end of this decade as part of its economic diversification efforts.
Having already surpassed the 100 million target, Saudi Arabia’s National Tourism Strategy aims to attract 150 million visitors by 2030.
“The number of tourism establishments in Saudi Arabia with employees stood at approximately 177,031 in the first quarter of 2026, marking a 9 percent increase compared with the same quarter of 2025, when the total stood at 162,473,” said GASTAT.
Employment in tourism activities grew by 6.5 percent, reaching about 1,047,313 people, up from 983,253 a year earlier. Saudi nationals made up 250,094 of these employees, while non-Saudi workers accounted for 797,219.
The report also showed that hotel guests stayed an average of 4.2 nights in the first quarter of 2026, a 2 percent increase from 4.1 nights a year earlier.
Guests in serviced apartments and other facilities stayed an average of 2.2 nights in the first three months of 2026, representing a 1.2 percent increase compared with the same period in 2025.
Hotel room occupancy stood at 60.8 percent in the first quarter, a decline of 2.1 percentage points from 63 percent in the same period of 2025.
In contrast, occupancy for serviced apartments and other hospitality facilities improved to 51.6 percent, up 1.0 percentage point from 50.7 percent.
Average daily room rates moderated in the first quarter. Hotels recorded an average daily rate of approximately SR423 ($112.63), down 11.4 percent from the year-earlier period.
Average daily room rates for serviced apartments and other facilities averaged SR206, marking a modest 1.2 percent year-on-year decline.
