Wish you were here

“SAUDI ARABIA could be one of the great travel destinations of the Middle East.” So starts Lonely Planet’s guidebook to the kingdom before enumerating some of its charms: deserted Red Sea beaches, the pre-Islamic monument of Madain Saleh, verdant mountains and the empty quarter with its endless sand dunes. Yet the book’s first and only edition was in 2004. Can the Saudi authorities persuade publishers that it is time for another?

Not for the first time the Saudis say they want more visitors. The pressure to attract them has grown. Jobs must be created for thousands of university students, soon to graduate. And though the country’s financial reserves could sustain the current sky-high level of public spending for several years, the government must start to find sources of income other than oil, which provides over 80% of its revenue.

Around 14.3m people visited in 2012, according to the World Bank, making Saudi Arabia the world’s 19th-most-visited country. But almost all come as pilgrims to Mecca or on business. Expos, conferences and flashy exhibitions are ever more common. But these visitors tend to stay only a few days, spend little and are concentrated in a few, already-wealthy parts of the country.

The idea of creating a tourist industry in the conservative, hermit-like kingdom is risible to many. In December the government said it would issue tourist visas for the first time, only to suspend them three months later, citing a need first to improve infrastructure. In any case, the Saudis are unlikely to woo Americans and Europeans, since the idea of Western infidels trampling across Saudi soil upsets the clerics of the strict Wahhabi sect that props up the ruling House of Saud. “Saudi has hundreds of potential Sharm el-Sheikhs,” says John Sfakianakis of MASIC, an investment company in Riyadh, the capital, referring to the Egyptian resort on the southern tip of the Sinai peninsula where scantily clad Russians and Swedes disport themselves on the beaches and in the bars. “But the culture is not conducive to that.”

“What we want is Saudis to spend their disposable income here rather than abroad,” says Prince Muhammad al-Faisal, who runs Al Faisaliah, a sprawling business group in Riyadh. “We need to look at why they are going to the UAE [the United Arab Emirates], for example.” Sceptics point out that many Saudis go abroad for entertainment, since cinemas and alcohol are banned in the kingdom and women eagerly embrace the chance to take off the abaya (a long black cloak) that must be worn at all times in public.

The authorities may have come up with their best plan yet when they announced in May that they would encourage pilgrims to stay on for tourism. Prince Muhammad notes that many of them are keen to spend: his company sells far more consumer electronics during the haj season, for example. Still, the kingdom will have to do a lot more to show it seriously wants visitors. And the country’s conservatives could yet scupper any plans.