Huthi attacks no threat to Saudi resorts: minister

Riyadh – Attacks by Yemen’s Huthi rebels on Red Sea shipping pose no threat to Saudi coastal resorts, the kingdom’s tourism minister told AFP Sunday at a summit focused on regional instability.

“What is happening is at the end of the Red Sea, at the very south of the Red Sea,” Ahmed Al Khateeb said on the sidelines of a two-day World Economic Forum special meeting in the Saudi capital.

He was referring to the Huthis’ campaign of drone and missile attacks targeting ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden that the rebels say are linked to Israel.

“All of our projects in the Red Sea or NEOM are in the middle and north of the Red Sea, far away from the conflict, and it is definitely not a target for the Huthis,” Khateeb said.

Saudi Arabia mobilised an international military coalition against the Huthis in 2015, although a truce has largely held for the past two years.

The kingdom has since been seeking to open up to international tourism, which it sees as a vital engine of its Vision 2030 economic reform agenda meant to prepare the world’s biggest crude exporter for a post-oil future.

In recent months Saudi Arabia has begun accepting guests at two resorts as part of its Red Sea Global coastal development, while the luxury yachting island Sindalah — part of the futuristic NEOM megacity — is expected to be completed by the end of this year.

Saudi officials are also hoping to draw more tourists to the kingdom’s mountainous southern region, a part of the country to which some diplomats were barred from flying because of the threat of Huthi attacks.

“The south is a very important product for us,” Khateeb said on Sunday, adding that Asir province — which borders Yemen and is home to projects like the Soudah luxury mountain development — is “very safe, very stable”.

The Huthis, who seized Yemen’s capital Sanaa in 2014, began targeting Red Sea shipping in November in what they say is solidarity with Palestinians.

Their campaign comes in response to the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, triggered by the Palestinian militants’ unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7.

Attacks by the Huthis have drawn reprisal strikes from the United States and Britain since January, and prompted Western naval forces to deploy in order to counter attacks on ships plying the busy commercial routes.

– ‘No change’ to alcohol rule –

Despite regional tensions, Saudi Arabia recorded year-on-year growth of 10 percent in tourism visits in the first quarter of 2024, Khateeb said on Sunday.

Last year it recorded 79 million domestic visits and 27 million international visits.

The revised target for 2030 is 150 million total visits — up from an earlier target of 100 million — including 70 million international visits.

Saudi Arabia, long closed off to much of the world, inaugurated general tourism visas in 2019, just months before the coronavirus pandemic decimated the tourism industry globally.

The kingdom is trying to shed its austere reputation by hosting major music and sporting events and developing other attractions.

In January, Saudi Arabia, home to the holiest shrines in Islam, opened its first alcohol shop, which serves only non-Muslim diplomats.

Alcohol is banned for everyone else, and Khateeb said on Sunday that would continue to be the case.

“There is no change in the policy,” he said, adding there was plenty of room for growth even if alcohol was not available. 

“We believe we will continue to grow with the same policy.”