Saudi gets sporty

A new KPMG report highlights the kingdom’s vast sports tourism potential

Sports tourism is not a new concept. Golf and ski trips have been trending for decades and remain the most popular globally and long have tourists travelled across the world to attend the Olympics or a World Cup.

“However, the sports tourism industry has more recently grown in countries that haven’t traditionally been sports destinations or hosts of major sporting events,” says a new report by KPMG.

“These countries noticed the economic and broader societal impacts of sport tourism and wanted their piece of the pie.” That pie is a big one, with UNWTO pre-pandemic figures revealing that sports tourism generates 12 to 15 million international arrivals each year and represents 10% of the world’s tourism industry, with a turnover of about US$800 billion.

One country advancing agendas to build a sporting culture that attracts domestic and international tourists is Saudi Arabia.

The sports sector currently contributes around 0.2% of the kingdom’s GDP, while the tourism sector contributes about 3%, according to the Ministry of Sport and the Ministry of Tourism.

The two ministries have ambitious targets for growth, with sports contributing 0.6% of GDP and tourism 10% by 2030.

One obvious sector for development, therefore, is sports tourism.

The KPMG report, entitled Competitive edge: The unfolding potential for sports tourism in Saudi Arabia, highlights a model of four different categories of sports tourism:

Destination-dependent tourism

This category highlights the kingdom’s vast natural infrastructure as a major pull factor for sports tourism. It includes activities such as diving and watersports on the Red Sea coast, mountain climbing, as well as desert activities such as rally racing, running, cycling, and motor and quad biking.

Alternative location sports tourism

This recognises the role sports tourists play close to home when they are not on vacation. The sport – or entire vacation – is enhanced by the destination. A key example here is golf, with the

Golf tourism potential: the Dubai success story

Golf tourism was recently valued at $22.9 billion, with more than 50 million golf tourists traveling the world to play on some of the estimated 40,000 courses. In Dubai, golf tourism contributes around $40 million to the economy. The emirate was recently ranked sixth (along with Abu Dhabi) in a list of the top world golf destinations, behind Spain, Portugal, Scotland, Turkey and Ireland. Dubai’s now-thriving golf industry got its start through public funding. The Emirates Golf Club, founded in 1988 as the emirate’s first golf club, and the Dubai Creek Golf Club, founded in 1993, were both funded by the Engineering Office of HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid. The office’s philosophy was to build the golf industry from the ground up. Once the two clubs were established and attracting customers, private sector players recognised the market potential and began establishing competing clubs. Eventually, both golf clubs were transferred to a private sector entity which further developed and monetised the properties. Today, Dubai’s golf courses stage widely viewed global golfing events. The European Tour promotes its season as ‘The Race to Dubai’, which culminates with the DP World Tour Championship at the Jumeirah Golf Estates in Dubai. Dubai’s courses are also host to the Omega Dubai Desert Classic, held in 2021 for the 32nd year, and the Omega Dubai Ladies Masters.

LEVERAGING SAUDI’S GEOGRAPHY FOR SPORT

The Red Sea Diving: excellent year-round visibility, few currents, untouched waters, pristine reefs. Sailing: warm year-round waters and consistent winds. In 2019, Saudi Arabia hosted its first sailing championships. Kiteboarding: the east coast’s wind and water conditions are suited to this sport.

landscape and coastline of Saudi Arabia providing an outstanding and spectacular environment for the sport.

Participation-driven sports tourism

This is the least explored aspect of sports tourism but has potential as the country continues to open up to tourists, enabling mass participation in sports such as desert running and cycling races.

Spectator sports tourism

This refers to multi-sports games such as the Olympics, Asian Games, Asia Cup, World Cup, Formula One, etc. This is an area already being explored with events such as the F1 being staged in Jeddah.

Competitive fishing: the Red Sea is rich in marine life. In 2019, the first Red Sea International Sport Fishing Tournament attracted 30 teams from around the world.

Desert and mountains: According to NASA, 95% of Saudi Arabia is desert, while there are several mountain ranges across the western Hejaz region. This makes the kingdom ideal for hiking, rallycross, mountain climbing and extreme sports. KSA is the new host for the Dakar Rally, hosting the event for two consecutive years, in 2020 and 2021.

SAUDI'S SPORTS INFRASTRUCTURE

Stadiums: large stadiums and sports complexes are crucial for hosting global sporting events and the kingdom currently has 23 stadiums with a capacity of 10,000 spectators or more, according to the Saudi Press Agency. However, only three of these stadiums were built later than 1995 according to World Stadiums statistics, indicating a need for more modern stadiums.

NEOM: the $500 billion, 10,000-square-mile project in northwest Saudi Arabia is focusing on the sports industry for one of its 14 core ideological concepts. Adventure sports are key to these plans as NEOM leverages its natural beauty. Its recent partnerships include the Dakar Rally, Mercedes-Benz EQ Formula E Team and the Asian Football Confederation.

AlUla: Home to Saudi’s first UNESCO World Heritage Site, located in the north-western area of the Kingdom, is under rapid development and lends itself to sports including horse riding, hiking, sandboarding and dune bashing. It has hosted major international sports events like the Saudi Tour (cycling) and desert polo.

The Red Sea Project & Amaala: Amaala, the ultra-luxury tourism project being built along the Red Sea coast, will be home to a sports performance academy, an equestrian resort and polo academy, and provide facilities for golf, tennis and falconry. Its Red Sea location lends itself to marine sports like diving, fishing and sailing sports. The Red Sea Project will offer a variety of sports, including scuba diving, rock climbing, trekking, parachuting, golf, tennis and football.

Qiddiya: this entertainment mega-project located outside of Riyadh has outlined a strategy to become a centre for sports-related entertainment. Its plans include developing a Jack Nicklaus Championship Golf Course, a speed park built around an FIA grade 1 racetrack, a multi-sports stadium and aquatic centre, karts facilities and dedicated sport centres for kids and women.