Saudi PIF Unveils 100,000 Hotel Rooms and 70 Tourism Experiences by 2030

RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA – Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund has unveiled a major expansion of its tourism and hospitality ambitions under its newly approved 2026-2030 strategy, setting out plans to deliver 100,000 hotel rooms and launch 70 tourism experiences across the Kingdom.

The targets were announced by PIF Governor His Excellency Yasir Al-Rumayyan during a government press conference in Riyadh, following board approval of the fund’s latest five-year strategy chaired by His Royal Highness Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

The latest strategy signals a continued push by the sovereign wealth fund to deepen its role in reshaping Saudi Arabia’s non-oil economy, with tourism, hospitality and entertainment positioned as core pillars of the Kingdom’s long-term diversification agenda.

HE Al-Rumayyan said the tourism pipeline forms part of PIF’s wider contribution to national economic transformation, noting that the fund has accounted for SAR910 billion ($242.6 billion) of non-oil GDP growth, equivalent to roughly one-third of Saudi Arabia’s expansion in that segment.

Tourism and hospitality remain central to growth plans

Under the new strategy, tourism, travel and entertainment will continue to sit among the six priority domestic ecosystems within PIF’s Vision Portfolio, alongside urban development, logistics, advanced manufacturing, clean energy and NEOM.

For the hospitality sector, the announcement provides greater clarity on the scale of accommodation supply and destination development expected to emerge from PIF-backed projects over the next five years. The pipeline comes as Saudi Arabia accelerates efforts to strengthen tourism infrastructure, broaden its destination offering and support rising visitor volumes across the Kingdom.

HE Al-Rumayyan said tourism-related developments are expected to support capacity for 96 million passengers through King Salman International Airport, while destination infrastructure continues to be rolled out across a number of emerging tourism cities and large-scale developments.

The scale of the hospitality pipeline underlines the fund’s intention to create not only additional room inventory, but also a broader tourism ecosystem built around experiences, connectivity and long-term destination appeal.

NEOM to follow phased delivery model

On NEOM, HE Al-Rumayyan said the giga-project will be treated as an independent economic ecosystem within the new strategy, reflecting its scale and the breadth of sectors it encompasses, including tourism, logistics, ports, artificial intelligence, healthcare and energy.

He confirmed that the projects within NEOM have not been cancelled, but said some have been postponed and will be delivered in phases as part of a restructuring process intended to improve long-term financial sustainability.

According to him, work is underway to restructure projects within the NEOM company to ensure sustainable financial viability, with a particular emphasis on phased implementation and investment efficiency.

He identified Oxagon as a key component of the NEOM strategy and said infrastructure development for future tourism destinations remains a priority.

The comments suggest a more measured delivery approach for the mega-development, with emphasis shifting toward sequencing, capital discipline and ensuring projects are brought to market in a way that supports long-term returns.

Focus shifts toward capital efficiency and private sector

Under the broader 2026-2030 strategy, PIF said it will place greater emphasis on capital efficiency, sustainable returns and private sector participation as it moves from a phase of rapid expansion into what it described as a new stage of sustained value creation.

The fund has structured its investments across three portfolios: Vision, Strategic and Financial.

The Vision Portfolio will oversee domestic economic ecosystems, including tourism and NEOM, with a mandate to unlock opportunities for private sector investors, suppliers and partners, while also attracting international capital into Saudi Arabia’s priority sectors.

PIF said it invested more than $199 billion in new Saudi projects between 2021 and 2025, while spending more than $157 billion with the local private sector during the same period.

Foreign direct investment attracted through PIF companies reached SAR57 billion ($15.2 billion) between 2021 and the third quarter of 2025.

The fund’s assets under management have grown from $150 billion in 2015 to more than $900 billion, reinforcing its role as one of the main financial engines behind Saudi Arabia’s economic transformation strategy.

With tourism now firmly embedded within its next five-year roadmap, PIF’s latest targets point to a continued build-out of hospitality capacity, airport-linked demand drivers and destination experiences designed to strengthen the Kingdom’s position as a global tourism and investment market.