The weekend migration from KSA to Dubai is huge, 150/200k, for 8 months a year.
They love the freedom, choices,quality and class of the city.
They spend an unbelievable amount of money whilst they're there.
KSA will be a mega destination in 20 years all the major global brands are already there are have made their plans /reservations.
Watch this space
That's my understanding too. Funnily enough it was only two weeks ago that KSA came up in conversation with a mate of mine & what he showed me was eye-popping & beyond belief!
They know come 2030, their oil revenues will plummet because of the ban on petrol & diesel cars being made or imported into the EU & the upcoming climate crisis fossil fuel reduction agreements.
The issue KSA have is the strict Sharia law which governs the Kingdom, but Muhammed Bin Salman is in overdrive to change their economy & the perception of their country, in order to attract Western investment before they run out of oil revenues to make the necessary changes.
They now have HUGE government run & backed Western music festivals, the biggest of which attracts 750k people, where their women can attend without wearing head dress.
A few years ago there were debates about whether women should be allowed to drive & work, but since MBS took over the running of KSA from his father, he's been on a mission to transform the country's millennia old Islamic traditions.
Now women are allowed to drive & work in most jobs that men can, with many also serving in the military. Only a few weeks ago, they sent their first female astronaut into space to highlight their changing Kingdom.
MBS's issues remain with the conservative clerics who're dead set against modernisation & the watering down of strict Islamic Sharia Law!
Only last year MBS ordered the public beheading of 81 men live on TV! I never looked at KSA beyond that & what I'd heard of previously, but now I understand his logic, albeit I vehemently disagree with his methodology!
Essentially, the beheadings were a warning to the elderly dissenting clerics that if they don't get in line, & try to stand in the way of progress, they'll be next in line for a public chopping!
They're now considering making the Southwest coastal region a sub-state of the Kingdom, where there's a discussion about relaxing the laws on alcohol & smoking for foreigners, to try & entice global multinationals to relocate there.
They know few Westerners wanna settle in a country where they will be publicly flogged if caught drinking alcohol, smoking, living with a partner they're not married to, or being found to have drugs in their bloodstream. Hence why this new proposed region will be policed differently to the rest of the Kingdom, like a separate economic zone if you will.
In 2020, the UAE made alcohol consumption legal across the seven Kingdoms, & their Sharia Law now only applies to UAE nationals. Foreign nationals will be subject to the laws of the land, but won't be punished by public floggings or choppings!
RSA is way behind the UAE on this score, but they've apparently got their foot to the floor in an attempt to catch up.
Also, have you seen the plans for The Line? WTAF man! It will be out of this world if they can pull it off by their self imposed 2030 deadline, hence why money is no object to transform the Kingdom before the oil revenues dry up & they're left with vast reserves, with few customers!
The writing's on the wall. June 2023 is the hottest since records began & three times last month, the hottest June daily global temperature records were beaten & it's set to get even hotter in the following years. \0/