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Saudi Arabia

See the latest market data for Saudi Arabia – including traveller visits and spend, length of stay, behaviours and preferences.

Introduction

Travellers from Saudi Arabia made 9.7 million outbound visits in 2019, with a total international tourism expenditure of US$15.1 billion.

In 2022, the UK welcomed 203,671 visits from Saudi Arabia. During the travellers’ visits, their total expenditure was £713.27 million, with an average spend of £3,502 per person.

Discover visitor behaviour, travel trade insights, detailed data visualisations for this market – and more. The statistics in this market report are collated from a range of sources such as the Office for National Statistics (ONS), as well as sponsored questions and our own research. For further details, see How we source this information.

Explore the inbound data in full

Use our visualisations to see data from this market in greater depth and clarity. Compare annual statistics, and filter by age group, gender, trip duration and more. Includes seasonality, trip purpose and regional spread of visitors to UK destinations. This data is based on the International Passenger Survey, conducted by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

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Perceptions of Britain in the Saudi market

  • Saudi perceptions of Britain improved in 2022. It was ranked eight out of 60 nations in the Anholt Nation Brands Index which was a change of six ranks.

  • Britain’s strongest attribute was ‘contemporary culture’, ranked sixth.

  • Saudi respondents strongly associate Britain with ‘films’, ‘museums’, and ‘music’.

  • Saudi respondents expect that a trip to Britain would be ‘fascinating’, ‘educational’ and ‘exciting’.

Global context

Top-level statistics relating to the population, GDP, tourism expenditure and popular destinations for this market. For greater detail on inbound tourism flows from this market to the UK, see our data visualisations.

Measure

2019

International tourism expenditure (US$bn)

15.1

Global rank for international tourism expenditure

24

Number of outbound visits (m)

9.7

Most visited destination

Kuwait

Most visited destination in Western Europe

United Kingdom

Key demographic and economic data

Measure

2023

Population (m)

35.8

GDP per capita PPP (US$)

70,256

Annual average GDP growth over past decade (%)

2.4

Annual GDP growth (%)

1.4

Access to Britain from Saudi Arabia

The key routes and transport modes that connect this market with the UK.

Measure

2023

Weekly aircraft departures

44

Weekly seat capacity

13,155

Airports with direct routes in Saudi Arabia

3

Airports with direct routes in Britain

4

  • In 2023, three airports in Saudi Arabia served four airports in Britain: Birmingham International, London Gatwick, London Heathrow and Manchester International.

  • The highest share of departing seats was on the Riyadh to London Heathrow route in 2023.

  • In 2023, the airlines operating the Saudi Arabia to Britain route were British Airways and Saudia.

  • The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic led to a 68% reduction in direct seat capacity from Saudi Arabia to the UK in 2020. 2021 was 61% behind pre-COVID levels, and 2022 was 2% behind pre-pandemic levels.

  • In 2023, direct seat capacity is set to exceed pre-pandemic (2019) levels by 51%.

  • The current reduced rate of Air Passenger Duty for visitors departing Britain for Saudi Arabia is £87.

  • Saudi Arabian nationals can pay £30 for a visa waiver to enter the UK.

Further resources

GCC Market and Trade Profile 2021

Download (73.2 MB)

Saudi Arabia Market Snapshot.pdf

Download (379.26 KB)

Saudi Arabia Aviation Profile

Download (211.08 KB)

Saudi Arabia COVID-19 Travel Sentiment - Published April 2022

Download (486.06 KB)

Where visitors from Saudi Arabia to the UK reside in their own country - Published 2019

Download (157.06 KB)

Perceived barriers to exploring Britain beyond London for Saudi Arabians - Published July 2014

Download (2.45 MB)

How we source this information

We work with a number of data sources to provide a rich and insightful picture of our key inbound source markets. This includes, but is not limited to, data provided by Oxford Economics, the UNWTO, Apex, Anholt-Ipsos Nation Brands Index and from our own surveys and ad-hoc research. The largest share of these data comes from the International Passenger Survey (IPS) by the ONS.

Visit our About the International Passenger Survey page for more information on how this data is collected and analysed. 

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