Incoming tourism to the Kingdom has witnessed a remarkable increase during the past two months, and the total tourist trips for the months of July and August 2019, which coincided this year with summer vacation and Hajj season reached 3.2 million passengers, compared to 3 million for the same period in 2018, according to a recent report issued by Tourism Information and Research Center (MAS) of Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage. Incoming tourists spent more than 56 million tourism nights in the last two months, compared to 52.9 million last year for the same period, during which they spent about SR 36.2 billion compared to SR 33 billion in 2018. The Center's indicators showed the increase of domestic tourist movement from January to August 2019 to reach 30 million trips, an increase of 3.4% over the same period last year, and a total of 156.5 million tourist nights compared to 156.2 million tourist nights in 2018. Tourism expenditures also rose to SR 33.8 billion in 2019 compared to SR 31.3 billion last year. The report revealed that the number of travelers outside the Kingdom during the period from January to August 2019 decreased by 5.8%, compared to the same period last year, where the number in July and August this year, in conjunction with the time of summer vacation, rose to 4.4 million passengers in the 4.6 million passengers for the same period in 2018. According to the "MAS" report, the volume of tourist nights spent by travelers outside the Kingdom in July and August this year amounted to 78.4 million nights, a decrease of 4.6% from 2018, during which they spent nearly SR 16.4 billion, down by 5.9% from the same summer period last year.
