Saudi Arabia

From 22 May we will be working to update all of the data and documents on this page following the Office of National Statistics (ONS) revision of the International Passenger Survey (IPS) data for 2009-2018 and the released detailed 2019 data. UK data will be updated first and followed by the regional data from 27 May. Please be patient as we update these pages or contact the VisitBritain research team if you have any questions- VB/VEResearch@visitbritain.org. Thank you.

Global context


Measure	2019
International tourism expenditure (US$bn)	15.1
Global rank for international tourism expenditure	25
Number of outbound visits (m)	19.9
Most visited destination	Kuwait
Most visited destination in Western Europe	United Kingdom

Key demographic and economic data


Measure	2019
Population (m)	36.7
GDP per capita PPP (US$)	48,207
Annual average GDP growth over past decade (%)	3.4
Annual average GDP growth in the past year (%)	0.3

GCC Market Profile (PDF, 3.06MB)

Saudi Arabia Market Snapshot (PDF, 1MB)

Saudi Arabia Aviation Profile (PDF, 212KB)

Find out where visitors from Saudi Arabia reside in their own country (Excel, 176KB, Published in 2016)

Explore the perceived barriers which stop visitors from Saudi Arabia visiting regions outside of London (PDF, 2.46M, Published October 2014)

Exchange rate

1 GBP = 5.1475 SAR

As of 21 January 2021

Retrieved from the Bank of England

Inbound visits to Britain from Saudi Arabia

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Drag to change year on charts and tables.

Touch the data points to see the values.

OVERVIEW OF UK VISITOR STATISTICS {{activeYear.name}}

Number of visits

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Total expenditure (GBP)

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Total nights spent

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Average length of stay (Nights)

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Average spend per visit (GBP)

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Chart
Table

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	Visits	% total	Visits	% total
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Table

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	Visits	% total	Nights	% total	Visits	% total	Nights	% total
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Table

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Access to Britain from Saudi Arabia


Measure	2019
Weekly aircraft departures	32
Weekly seat capacity	8,738
Airports with direct routes in Saudi Arabia	3
Airports with direct routes in Britain	2

In 2019, 3 airports in Saudi Arabia served 2 airports in Britain: London Heathrow and Manchester
The highest share of departing seats stemmed from the Riyadh to London Heathrow route in 2019
In 2019, the airlines that operated the Saudi Arabia to Britain route are British Airways and Saudia
The current reduced rate of Air Passenger Duty for visitors departing Britain for Saudi Arabia is £78

(excluding routes from Madinah to the UK)

Markets

Markets

Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia