JEDDAH: Nearly 50 new hotels offering more than 14,000 rooms are expected to open in Saudi Arabia this year to cope with a huge increase in visitors. The number of hotel rooms is set to double from 120,000 to 255,000 over the next 10 years. Against this background, the Hotel and Hospitality Show Saudi Arabia will be held in Jeddah in November. Hotel properties valued at $7.3 billion are set to start operations in the Kingdom, with tourism officials expecting to see tourist numbers rise to 88 million over the next decade. More than 2.3 million jobs are set to be created in the tourism industry in Saudi Arabia over the same period, according to the kingdom's Supreme Commission for Tourism and Antiquities (SCTA), which has inked more than SR334 million worth of tourism contracts in the past year. Rising visitor numbers to Saudi Arabia are fuelled in part by the strength of religious tourism, with 3.8 million travelers visiting the holy city of Makkah for Haj or Umrah in 2010. The Makkah Chamber of Commerce and Industry recently issued license for the construction of 500 hotels near the Grand Mosque in Makkah, including one with 5,000 rooms. Early t his week, Jabal Omar Development Company (JODC) Tuesday signed agreements with three global hotel chains where they will manage and operate hotels serving pilgrims in the holy city of Makkah. Hilton Worldwide, Marriott International and Hyatt International will manage and operate 12 hotels being built by Jabal Omar Development Company, a project that involves a $5.5 billion investment by the Saudi developer. Hilton will manage six of the mainly five-star hotels and the Hyatt and Marriott three each. The project has been 20 years in the making and is expected to be completed in early 2014. The entire project, which includes the construction of 37 hotel towers of between 20 and 48 stories, provides accommodation for 45,000. At a signing ceremony in London, Ian Carter, president of global operations at Hilton, said the main opportunities in Saudi Arabia remained business travelers. But he added: "More and more tourism will be part of the mix. People will see opportunities to develop coastal towns and resorts. But right now, we are focused on business travelers and the religious pilgrimage traveler." Business tourism is also on the rise, with spending of more than $13 billion on infrastructure committed in 2010. "Saudi Arabia saw inbound tourism rise from 5.3 million in 2006 to 7.7 million in 2010, with Riyadh having the highest gross operating profit per available room in the GCC," said Frederique Maurell, exhibition director of the show.
