This increased demand will be driven by an increasing number of GCC residents wishing to visit the kingdom on short city or mini breaks. It will also be bolstered by business travellers extending work trips to explore the Kingdom's expanding tourism offerings or attend one of the many sporting or cultural events.

Underpinning this trend, the data from Colliers revealed that over 21,3 million visitors were estimated to visit the country by 2024.

Danielle Curtis, exhibition director ME, ATM, said, “As Saudi Arabia continues to reduce its reliance on oil, increasing tourism arrivals is becoming instrumental in the country’s economic diversification, and at ATM, we are witnessing this growth firsthand, with the total number of exhibitors from the Kingdom increasing 45 percent year-on-year between 2018 and 2019.

According to the latest data from STR, 79,864 hotel rooms are expected to be added to the Kingdom's existing inventory by 2025, with the majority of rooms (34,270) in Mecca, followed by Jeddah and Riyadh with 14,525 and 11,632 new rooms, respectively.