8.6mln Gulf tourists visited Saudi Arabia in 2023, spending over $4bln

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RIYADH — A total of 8.6 million tourists from five Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states visited Saudi Arabia during the year 2023 and their total spending accounted for more than SR15 billion, according to the Saudi Ministry of Tourism.

The annual report on tourism statistics for the year 2023, issued by the ministry, indicated that Bahrain ranked first among the GCC countries, with 3.4 million tourists, followed by Kuwait with a number exceeding 2.3 million tourists.

The United Arab Emirates came third with nearly 1.4 million tourists, while the number of tourists, who came from Qatar, accounted for approximately 1.1 million tourists, and Oman came in the bottom of the list with 455000 tourists.

It is noteworthy that the number of tourists visited Saudi Arabia from abroad exceeded 27 million during the year 2023 and their spending exceeded SR141 billion.

The number of local and foreign tourists during the past year exceeded 109 million.