SAUDI ARABIA. In big breaking news for the burgeoning Saudi travel retail industry, the Cabinet today approved the creation of duty free shops in airport arrivals zones, land borders, and seaports.
A Cabinet meeting, chaired by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman this afternoon, approved the move.
As a result, duty free sales will be permitted both on departure and arrival in all three channels.
“This is ground-breaking news,” one senior Middle East travel retail executive told The Moodie Davitt Report.
Riyadh Airports Company’s Commercial Group Acting VP Abdulaziz Al Asaker confirmed the news to us, welcoming it as a further positive development for the Kingdom’s fast-growing duty free sector.
Another senior source in Saudi Arabia said, “This is excellent news on the arrivals and other locations – a further mark of how serious the pace of change, and the commercial opportunities created, in the travel sector are. And there is so much more to come.”
The decision reflects the Saudi government’s highly supportive approach to the country’s travel, tourism and aviation sectors, a subject explored in the launch edition of Saudi Travel & Tourism Ecosystem, just published by The Moodie Davitt Report.
Travel retail forms an important element of Vision 2030, a powerful and transformative economic and social reform blueprint that is opening Saudi Arabia up to the world and within which tourism – sustainable and regenerative – plays a pivotal role.
We will bring you more details soon.
