AlUla looks to 'shift the dial' to encourage year-round tourism

The Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU), the tourist board for the Saudi region, is looking to “shift the dial” as it looks to encourage year-round tourism in a bid to meet its goal of one million annual arrivals by 2030, after recording 286,000 in 2024.

 

Speaking to Travel Weekly, Ansar Babu, director for global distribution and international operations at RCU, said: “Traditionally, there’s a perception that we’re just a destination to visit in winter, with dips during Ramadan and the summer, which is generally a weak period for us.

 

“But this year we worked hard to offer our heritage experiences and hotels at great value during Ramadan and it worked, as we saw an 80% increase in visitors during the month of Ramadan this year.”

 

RCU’s focus is now to encourage visitors to come during the shoulder and summer seasons and it hopes that being more prepared ahead of 2026 will pay dividends.

 

“We have generally been a bit last minute in the way we operate. But now we’ve got pricing for Ramadan 2026 and summer 2026 live that’s accessible for all our markets and with our hotels,” added Babu.

 

The region hopes to add seasonal-specific heritage and adventure experiences to its inventory to help boost interest away from its peak season.

 

Experiences such as seeing the Unesco-listed Nabataean tombs of Hegra at night, to avoid the intense daytime summer heat, are already available to book, while the tourist board intends to move away from solely relying on its events calendar to pull in out-of-season travellers.

 

To match RCU’s expansion, both in terms of its inventory and aims to shed its seasonality, there will also be a greater choice of B2B operators in 2026, as well as enhanced training tools for agents.

 

Claire Golding, RCU’s UK director, said: “We’ve got a few new tour operators selling AlUla for 2026, so along with the other B2B products we already have and contacting our DMCs directly, we’re getting to a stage where agents have somewhere to go.

 

“Our AlUla Specialist programme has all of our DMCs and B2B product listed on it, so it should be getting easier for the trade to sell the region.”