Saudis and expatriates spent more than SR44.9 billion on domestic tourist trips in 2016, a drop of 6.4 percent compared to figures of 2015, Saudi Press Agency said. The data was released by the Tourism Information and Research Center (MAS).
The number of inland tourist trips in the year exceeded 47.5 million, compared to 46.5 million in 2015, or an increase of 2.3 percent, MAS, an affiliate of the Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage (SCTNH), said in its report.
Meanwhile, the number of tourist nights of the inland tourism sector reached 243.5 million nights compared to 240.6 million nights in 2015, or a growth of 1.2 percent, the report said.
The number of trips for incoming tourism was estimated at 18.05 million in 2016, compared to 17.99 million trips in 2015, an increase of 0.3 percent. Likewise, the number of nights spent by incoming tourists in the year rose by 2.3 percent to reach 197.6 million, compared to 193.1 million nights in 2015, the report said.
The volume of spending on trips related to incoming tourism grew by 11.8 percent to SR92.3 billion in 2016, compared to SR82.5 billion in 2015, the report said.
Based on data released by MAS, the tourism sector in the Kingdom provides 882,900 direct jobs in the market, 27.8 percent being held by Saudis.
The tourism sector in the Kingdom annually generates some SR85.5 billion, which represents 3.5 percent of the Kingdom’s gross domestic product, and 4.9 percent of its non-oil sector.

Source: Arab News