An Investigation into the Current State of International ‎Conference Tourism in Saudi Arabia and an Assessment of its ‎Future Development Possibilities

Abstract

This research study aims to assess the potential for Saudi Arabia to become an ‎international conference destination. Faced with problems created by rising ‎unemployment, a rapidly growing population, and fears over dependence on petroleum ‎output and price, the kingdom is currently looking to develop new sources of ‎employment and national revenue. Having joined the World Trade Organization in 2005, ‎Saudi Arabia is committed to liberalizing its markets and opening to foreign participation ‎by creating investment and business opportunities. Developing an international ‎conference sector is considered a potentially suitable way to meet the current domestic ‎and international imperatives to change and the challenges these present.‎

The growth of new markets and international conference destinations in a globalizing ‎economy is leading to increased research. However, the field is still young: there has ‎been limited attention paid to the perspective of delegates and much of the research has ‎been concerned with western destinations. As no other study has been carried out into the ‎potential of this sector in Saudi Arabia, or the Gulf region, this research makes an ‎original contribution to knowledge.‎

A mixed methods approach was adopted to explore and assess both the practical capacity ‎of the country to host international conferences and the socio-political context that might ‎impact on this development. The primary sources of data were officials in the field and ‎visiting delegates, whose views and knowledge were obtained through the use of both ‎quantitative and qualitative methods (through a questionnaire and interviews ‎respectively). The results are integrated in the final discussion. ‎

The findings indicate that, although Saudi Arabia has the practical capacity to host ‎international conferences, the effects of an ambivalent attitude towards opening up to the ‎outside world – expressed through a number of factors embedded in the socio-political ‎situation in the kingdom – has led to an impasse which is blocking development.‎