RIYADH — Saudi Arabia's hotel room occupancy rate rose to 63% in the first quarter of 2025, up 2.1 percentage points from the same period in 2024, according to the Tourism Establishments Statistics Publication released by the General Authority for Statistics (GASTAT). In contrast, the occupancy rate for serviced apartments and other hospitality facilities dropped to 50.7%, down 3.8 percentage points compared to Q1 2024. The report also showed a mixed trend in room pricing. The average daily room rate in hotels fell by 3.4% year-on-year, reaching SR477, while serviced apartments and similar facilities saw an increase of 7.2%, bringing the average rate to SR209. Regarding guest behavior, the average length of stay in hotels during the fourth quarter of 2024 remained unchanged at 4.1 nights. However, the average stay in serviced apartments and other hospitality facilities decreased by 4.5% to 2.1 nights. Tourism employment saw a notable uptick, with 983,253 individuals working in tourism-related activities during Q1 of 2025, reflecting a 4.1% increase compared to the same quarter last year. Of the total, 243,369 were Saudi nationals, representing 24.8% of the workforce, while non-Saudis made up the remaining 75.2% with 739,884 employees. Men accounted for 86.8% of all workers in the tourism sector, totaling 853,852, while women represented 13.2% or 129,401 employees. The tourism sector comprised 5.4% of the total national workforce in Q1 of 2025, a slight decrease of 0.3 percentage points compared to Q1 of 2024. In the private sector, tourism employees made up 8.1% of the workforce, down 0.6 percentage points year-on-year.
