Where Vision Shapes Opportunity | By Muin Serhan

The theme for Future Hospitality Summit Saudi Arabia 2025-taking place from 11-13 May at Mandarin Oriental Al Faisaliah, Riyadh, is ‘Where Vision Shapes Opportunity’. In the lead up to the event next month, we asked several industry partners about the opportunities they see for the hospitaliy industry in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 2025 and beyond.

The ambitious initiatives of Vision 2030 have significantly transformed Saudi Arabia’s hospitality sector over the past few years with excellent results. The National Tourism Strategy has set a target of 150 million annual visitors by 2030, contributing 1.6 million jobs in the tourism sector and 10% of GDP. There are plenty of opportunities across the Kingdom – in cities, coastal areas, and mountainous regions – where hotel groups should invest time and resources to develop the proper infrastructure and nurture the right talent to take Saudi hospitality to great heights.

Here are a few things to consider throughout the process.

Untapped opportunities in secondary cities

The Kingdom’s secondary cities play an essential role in Vision 2030. Developing secondary cities into tourism destinations offers travelers historical and cultural experiences beyond major urban hubs such as Riyadh and Jeddah. For instance, the new Mercure Khamis Mushait (managed by Amsa Hospitality) marks a significant milestone in the economic development of Khamis Mushait as the city’s first internationally branded hotel and helps position the wider Aseer region as a tourism destination.

AI-driven efficiency improvements

If tech advancements continue at their current pace, we can expect some great ways in which AI and data-driven systems will improve efficiency in hotel operations. Our main task as hospitality leaders will be to teach our teams how to make the most of this technology. New systems are only as good as we are capable of using them. We must also stay flexible and quickly adapt to tech changes to stay ahead of the competition.

Preparing Saudi talent for the future

Hospitality is in the DNA of Saudi culture, where people are naturally inclined to be welcoming and excel in a job that requires them to look after their guests. Hoteliers must focus on training local talent to meet international hotel group standards. This becomes even more crucial as more established global brands enter the Saudi market.

Private-public partnerships

As things stand today, very few Saudis are in a hotel general manager role. We need to flip this around and aim to have most general manager appointments from the local talent market. Partnerships between the private and public sectors have become key here. For instance, Amsa Hospitality Academy has signed agreements with leading Saudi universities, such as King Khalid University and Princess Noura University, to train their graduates at hotels across the Kingdom.

Anne BleekerIn2 Consulting+971 56 603 0886 The Bench