In the third quarter of 2025, Saudi Arabia’s tourism workforce exceeded 1 million, highlighting the sector’s rapid growth as the Kingdom enhances its hospitality infrastructure and visitor economy. The General Authority for Statistics reported that approximately 1,009,691 individuals were employed in tourism activities, reflecting a 6.4 percent increase from 948,629 in the same quarter of 2024. This surge in employment coincides with a notable rise in licensed tourism facilities, which grew by 40.6 percent year-on-year to reach 5,622, with serviced apartments and similar establishments comprising 52.6 percent.
This robust employment growth aligns with Vision 2030, which aims to double tourism’s GDP contribution to 10 percent and create 1.6 million jobs while attracting 150 million visitors annually by 2030. The report indicated that non-Saudi workers constituted the majority of the tourism workforce, totaling 764,520, or 75.7 percent, while Saudi nationals accounted for 245,171, representing 24.3 percent. Gender distribution showed a predominance of male employees, totaling 875,658, compared to 134,033 females, who made up just 13.3 percent of the workforce.
Hotel performance also demonstrated positive trends, with average room occupancy rising to 49.1 percent, up 2.9 percentage points from the previous year. However, serviced apartments experienced a slight decline in occupancy, at 57.4 percent compared to 58 percent in 2024. The average daily room rate for hotels decreased by 3.6 percent to SR341 ($90.9), while serviced apartments saw an increase of 4.1 percent to SR208. The average length of stay in hotels was 4.1 nights, a slight decrease from 4.2 nights in 2024, while serviced apartments recorded an average stay of 2.1 nights, reflecting a marginal decline. The statistics are derived from various data sources to comprehensively capture the Kingdom’s tourism activities.
