The Transformation
Vision 2030 began as a blueprint for Saudi Arabia. Ten years on, its reach extends much further, creating new markets, new flows of capital and a generation of consumers with growing influence at home and around the world
management in 2015 to more than $900 billion today and invested more than $199 billion in new projects in Saudi Arabia between 2021 and 2025. Its new 2026-2030 strategy explicitly sets out to attract global partners into Saudi ecosystems while continuing to invest internationally. Tourism, travel and entertainment is one of six sectors at the centre of that strategy. International investment is following that momentum, with Saudi Arabia rising to 13th among the world’s largest recipients of foreign direct investment in 2025 after attracting SAR136 billion (US$36.21 billion) in inbound Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). Saudi opportunity does not stop at the border. PIF's global portfolio includes a 15% stake in London’s Heathrow Airport, one
example of Saudi capital taking positions in assets central to international travel and commerce. At the same time, global destinations are looking increasingly closely at the Saudi consumer. Around 71% of Saudis are under 35, with an average age of just 26.6, while spending through official payment channels reached SAR1.57 trillion ($418.6 billion) in 2025. That combination – youth, spending power, outward-looking capital and an economy actively seeking international participation – is what makes the transformation relevant far beyond Saudi Arabia. For businesses around the world, Saudi’s transformation is opening up opportunities to invest, partner, sell to a growing consumer market and engage with an increasingly influential generation of travellers.
THE DECADE THAT CHANGED THE EQUATION
When Vision 2030 was launched in 2016, its central challenge was bigger than tourism: build a more diversified economy, expand private enterprise, create opportunities for a young population and open Saudi Arabia more fully to the world. A decade later, the results are visible across business, cities, technology, culture, entertainment and everyday life. Non-oil activity now accounts for more than half of GDP, while the private sector contributed 51% of GDP in 2025. Tourism is one of the most visible expressions of that change, but it sits within a much bigger investment story. The Public Investment Fund (PIF) has grown from $150 billion in assets under
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