The Middle East

RIYADH FOUR SEASONS HOTEL RIYADH AT KINGDOM CENTRE 

PO Box 231000 Riyadh 11321
T: (01) 211 5000
F: (01) 211 5001
www.fourseasons.com/riyadh

Rooms: 274 rooms, including 22 executive suites...

Foreign arrivals rose dramatically in 2011, making Saudi Arabia the largest travel market in the Middle East and North Africa. Plans to remove restrictions on the movement within the Kingdom of religious visitors from a number of countries, along with major tourism developments in the pipeline, are set to boost the market further. As demand...

Saudi Arabia comprises more than half of the GCC Islamic finance market in terms of Islamic assets and represents a far greater percentage of the sharia-compliant syndicated and project financing market. With Islamic syndicated loans in the first five months of 2012 surpassing the full 2011 figures largely on the back of Saudi mega-deals, this...

As governments work to realign their development plans with current economic realities, and investors reshape business models with the same aim, the GCC construction sector offers a useful example of the importance of taking stock and moving on. While many construction markets in the Middle East have stalled in recent years, Saudi Arabia’s...

Meetings, incentives, conferences and events (MICE) is one of the niches with the highest potential for bringing non-pilgrim foreign arrivals to the Kingdom. “MICE is a high-yield sector and we are working with the Ministry of Commerce and Industry to make Saudi Arabia one of the major MICE locations in the Middle East,” Abdullah Al Jehani, the...

In 2012 the Saudi government allocated SR86.2bn ($23bn) to health and social affairs, the largest amount in its history. Upgrading the health sector has become part of the country’s social strategy as it strives to accommodate the needs of a growing population expected to reach 32.8m by 2016.