Saudi Arabia's Tourism Megaprojects: What Is Actually Open

Saudi Arabia has spent years promising a tourism industry built from scratch, coral reefs turned into private islands, a 600-year-old mud-brick town turned into a luxury district, all funded by a sovereign wealth fund with famously deep pockets. The renderings have been circulating since 2019. The question travelers actually want answered is simpler: can you book a room yet, or is this still a construction site with a marketing budget.

The honest answer, as of early 2025, is both. Several resorts are open and taking guests. Most of the projects remain years from completion.

What is actually open on the Red Sea coast right now

The Red Sea Project has moved from announcement to arrivals faster than Diriyah. The St. Regis Red Sea Resort opened its doors on January 8, 2024, becoming the destination's first operating luxury hotel. It was followed in May 2024 by Nujuma, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve on Ummahat Island, and then by the Shebara Resort in November 2024, known for overwater villas built on a coral atoll. The Desert Rock Resort, built into a canyon setting, opened in early February 2025, according to project tracking by Travel Tomorrow. That is four operating luxury properties, all bookable now, all reachable via Red Sea International Airport, which opened for commercial flights alongside the resorts.

What is still coming versus what is finished

The bigger picture is still mostly future tense. Red Sea Global's own portfolio materials describe a destination ultimately targeting up to 50 resorts and roughly 8,000 hotel rooms by full build-out, with a stated ambition of welcoming up to a million visitors annually once complete, a target now pushed toward the end of the decade rather than the original 2030 date. Three additional properties, including an InterContinental, an SLS and a Red Sea Edition, are slated for Shura Island, the project's planned hub, through 2025. AMAALA, the adjacent ultra-luxury coastal development also under Red Sea Global, has begun announcing its own opening phase as well.

Where does Diriyah actually stand

Diriyah is earlier in its build cycle than the Red Sea coast. The $63.2 billion project, centered on restoring the mud-brick birthplace of the first Saudi state just outside Riyadh, is planned to eventually include 40 luxury hotels split across the 14-square-kilometer Diriyah district and the much larger 62-square-kilometer Wadi Safar development, according to TravelAge West's on-the-ground reporting. As of early 2025, Diriyah's historic Bujairi Terrace, a restaurant and heritage district overlooking the At-Turaif UNESCO site, is open and functioning as the project's public-facing showcase, while the large-scale hotel inventory remains under construction.

Should a traveler actually book a trip there now

If the goal is Red Sea diving and overwater villas in the style of the Maldives, the answer is genuinely yes, four resorts are operating and reachable by direct international flight into Red Sea International Airport. If the goal is a fully built-out Diriyah with its full hotel roster and completed districts, that trip is still a few years away. Travelers booking now should treat the Red Sea properties as finished luxury product and Diriyah as an early, partial preview of what the kingdom is building around it.

What this means for Saudi tourism strategy overall

The staggered rollout is deliberate. Red Sea Global has prioritized getting flagship, high-margin resorts open first to generate revenue and prove demand before completing the full footprint, the same playbook used by large-scale resort developments elsewhere in the world. Whether the kingdom hits its stated 150-million-annual-visitor target for the Red Sea destination by 2030 will depend heavily on how quickly the remaining Shura Island properties and the broader Diriyah hotel inventory actually open, not just how quickly they are announced.

For now, the megaprojects are no longer purely aspirational. They are partially real, bookable in specific pockets, and worth watching closely as more of the promised inventory comes online over the next several years.