By Saudi Arabia opened another luxury resort on its Red Sea coast this week, betting that construction can outrun a war. The 110-key Rosewood Amaala welcomed its first guests even as fighting between the US and Iran keeps foreign visitors away from much of the Gulf.
Key Takeaways
- Red Sea Global has opened the 110-key Rosewood Amaala, the third resort to open this year at its wellness-focused Amaala destination.
- The launch lands as the WTTC estimates the US-Iran conflict is costing Middle East tourism $600 million a day, with regional travel activity forecast to shrink 14.5 percent this year.
- Amaala is designed to eventually hold nearly 4,000 hotel rooms across 30 resorts and contribute up to $3 billion to Saudi Arabia’s economy.
A Third Amaala Resort in a Single Year
Red Sea Global, the giga-project developer backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, opened the Rosewood Amaala this week, the third resort to become operational this year at its Amaala destination along the Red Sea coast. The 110-key property spans 40 hectares and includes pavilions, suites and villas, along with 26 branded residences. The whole site runs on solar power, according to a statement from Red Sea Global.
It follows the Four Seasons Resort and Residences Amaala in Triple Bay, which opened in June, and the Six Senses Amaala, which opened in July. Three luxury openings inside three months is an aggressive pace even by the standards of Saudi Arabia’s giga-projects, and it signals that Red Sea Global has no intention of slowing construction to match the current dip in visitor demand.
Opening Into Heavy Headwinds
The timing is notable. The World Travel and Tourism Council estimated in March that the US-Iran conflict was costing the Middle East’s tourism sector $600 million a day, and it now forecasts regional travel and tourism activity will contract by 14.5 percent this year after growing 5.3 percent in 2025. The WTTC also expects the Gulf to lose around 137,000 tourism jobs in 2026 as the fallout continues to hit visitor demand across the region.
Saudi Arabia has not been immune, but it has fared better than some neighbours. The kingdom’s tourism minister and giga-project executives have pointed to its large domestic population, more than 35 million people, as a buffer that other Gulf states cannot draw on as easily. Ras Al Khaimah in the UAE, for instance, has leaned hard into domestic tourism this year to offset an international arrivals slump, with visitor numbers up but hotel occupancy still down sharply from a year earlier.
Betting on Domestic Demand and Long-Term Growth
Saudi Arabia’s approach has been similar: keep opening properties, keep the giga-projects on schedule, and lean on domestic holidaymakers to fill rooms while international travel recovers. Executives behind the kingdom’s tourism push have said visitor numbers stayed relatively resilient through the war, largely because Saudis kept travelling within their own country even as foreign arrivals slowed.
That strategy carries real financial weight. Red Sea Global and its backers are not treating the current downturn as a reason to pause. Instead, each new opening at Amaala and the wider Red Sea project adds inventory that the company is counting on international travellers eventually filling once the region stabilises.
The Bigger Picture for Amaala
Once complete, Amaala is intended to include nearly 4,000 hotel rooms spread across 30 resorts, alongside 1,200 luxury residences, retail space, fine dining and recreational facilities. Red Sea Global expects the destination to contribute up to $3 billion to the Saudi economy once fully built out, a figure that underlines just how much is riding on tourism as a pillar of the kingdom’s economic diversification under Vision 2030.
For now, Rosewood Amaala joins a small but growing list of ultra-luxury properties open for business on the Red Sea coast, even as the rest of the Gulf’s hospitality sector waits for the skies to clear.
For more on how the war is reshaping Gulf tourism, read our coverage of the 137,000 tourism jobs the region is forecast to lose this year.