NEOM says to start receiving tourists, investors by 2024

CEO of NEOM, Nadhmi Al-Nasr

Saudi Arabia's megacity NEOM will start receiving tourists and investors by 2024, Asharq Bloomberg TV channel reported, citing CEO Nadhmi Al-Nasr.

He added that some tourist areas and economic sectors are being developed currently in NEOM.

Andrew McEvoy, Head of Tourism Sector at NEOM, said the city is planning to open its first hotel by the end of 2022, Argaam earlier reported.

The futuristic city will open up to 15 hotels annually between 2023 and 2025, before ramping up the pace to 20 to 30 hotels thereafter.

He indicated that the initial number of visitors expected next year is between 20,000 to 50,000. The project will target about 1 million visitors by 2025 and 5 million by 2030, which will require a lot of hotel rooms.

In October 2017, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman announced the launch of a new investment city, NEOM, in northwest Saudi Arabia, at a total investment of $500 billion, financed by the Saudi government, Public Investment Fund (PIF), as well as local and global investors.