LONDON: Tourism and hospitality officials from around the world gathered for a summit in the British capital to explore ways to manage, operate, and develop a trusted and sustainable tourism and hospitality industry with a focus on alleviating harm to the environment.
Four leading Saudi banks participate in first riyal-denominated green financing The Red Sea project is aiming for a complete transformation of an hitherto undeveloped location in the Kingdom. Image Credit: Supplied
Dubai: A Saudi tourism project has secured one of the biggest ‘green’ financing to date – at a whopping 14.12 billion ($3.76 billion).
The Red Sea Development Co. (TRSDC) will use these funds to part-finance its project – one of the Kingdom’s biggest tourism-focussed projects. Green financing is given to those projects that are built with social and environmental sustainability frameworks.
In fact, this is the first Saudi riyal-denominated credit facility to receive a green financing accreditation. The funding is structured as a term loan and revolving credit facility from four Saudi banks - Banque Saudi Fransi, Riyad Bank, Saudi British Bank and Saudi National Bank.
Dubai: Check out the west and north-western parts on Saudi Arabia’s map. Come back in about a decade’s time to have a re-look. Chances are that you will not be able to recognise it as the Kingdom reshapes an entire region as part of its tourism development roadmap.
A sizeable portion of that will come in the form of the Red Sea Project, spanning a mind-boggling 28,000 square kilometres. A size and scale that go way beyond a ‘mega’ definition.
Welcome then to one of Saudi Arabia’s “giga-projects” in the making. “The giga-projects are part of a broader and more long-term diversification programme, which was already seeing the Kingdom open up and welcome tourists from all over the world,” said John Pagano, CEO of The Red Sea Development Company
Foster + Partners designs Coral Bloom resort on Saudi Arabian island
The Red Sea Project has revealed images of a resort designed by Foster + Partners to blend in with the natural environment of a Saudi Arabian island within the Red Sea.
Coral Bloom will be made up of 11 hotels on the dolphin-shaped island of Shurayrah, which is part of a chain of 90 undeveloped islands off the west coast of Saudi Arabia that are being developed as part of The Red Sea Project.
Foster + Partners is designing 11 hotels on the island of Shurayrah
Informed by the forms of native Saudi Arabian flowers and coral, the resort was designed to be a hub for the wider development and one of the first places that tourists visiting the development will see.