Saudi Arabia is making a high-risk $1 trillion bet on tourism
Saudi Arabia.
In Arabic, AlUla means “glory,” and the kingdom envisions a lot for this historical region, which is the size of New Jersey. It will become one of the world’s great tourist attractions—in the words of Melanie de Souza, AlUla’s top marketing official, a destination for “luxe seekers, wanderlust nomads, intrepid voyagers and silver foxes.”
Along with developing resorts, shops, restaurants and a contemporary art museum with Paris’ Centre Pompidou, the Royal Commission for AlUla is overseeing tourist-friendly archaeological excavations of colossal tombs that date to the first century B.C.
And then there’s the new Sharaan Nature Reserve, which showcases a repopulated world of rare beasts: the wild goats, known as ibex, with their long horns curving like scimitars; the striking black-and-white oryx antelopes; fleet-footed gazelles; and, one day soon, endangered Arabian leopards. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who chairs the commission, has camped here for several winters, hosting dignitaries such as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Senators Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.
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But on this day in March, the weather isn’t cooperating for the Wangs. A huge storm brings torrential rain, wind gusts and even hail. At the resort where they’re staying, guests’ cars are stuck in wet sand. Multitudes of Southeast Asian workers shovel the soaked earth, to little avail. The Wangs are marooned in their hotel
