Red Sea Project


Red Sea Project is a land and property development announced by the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman in July 2017. It is planned to be established on the Saudi Arabian Red Sea coast. The project is focused on tourism, hoping to attract tourists to visit and explore the Saudi western coast. The mega project is expected to increase the Saudi GDP by $5.86 billion per year upon completion, when it will cover of islands, beaches, desert, mountains and volcanic areas. The first phase is expected to be completed by 2022 when 3,000 hotel rooms will be constructed along with an airport, marina and recreation centers. The project is led by the Red Sea Development Company. It is expected to attract one million people every year. Upon completion, the project will create 70,000 new jobs. The Red Sea project is planned to add $5.9 billion to the Saudi gross domestic product.

Location

The project will be located at Tabuk province's shores of the Red Sea, particularly between the cities of Umluj and Al-Wajh. Ninety unspoiled offshore islands between the two cities will also be part of the project.

Phase one

In 2019, the first phase of the project is planned to be completed by 2022 and it will include the following facilities:
  1. 14 luxury and hyper-luxury hotels
  2. Marinas, leisure and lifestyle amenities
  3. An airport

    Ecological considerations

The project is planned in a way that considers the natural ecosystem of the area. Thus, a number of policies have been developed in this regards as follows:
  1. No waste-to-landfill
  2. No discharges to the sea
  3. No use of single use plastic
  4. Achieving a 100% carbon neutrality.
However, the project raises new challenges about water consumption, as Saudi Arabia consumes each year four times the water that is naturally renewed, while the resorts will use more than 56,000 cubic meters of water per day.