PROJECTS: Saudi tourism initiative AlUla signs strategic partnerships with international consultants

PROJECTS: Saudi tourism initiative AlUla signs strategic partnerships with international consultants

The Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU) announced on Wednesday that it has signed two strategic partnerships with US-headquartered AECOM and a French consortium of Egis, Assystem and Setec to put the AlUla master plan into the implementation stage. RCU said in a press statement that the agreements, signed at the fifth edition of the Future Investment Initiative (FII) in Riyadh, set out a comprehensive development timeline based around three phases that lead up to 2035. The statement said Phase 1 development, in AlUla's core 20-kilometre (km) historical area, would see more than 57 billion Saudi riyals ($15 billion) of investment in social, economic and sustainability projects in five unique hubs with a focus on infrastructure, hospitality, arts & culture, and social and community development. RCU CEO Amr AlMadani said the partnerships are critical to realising RCU’s ambition of creating a global benchmark for sustainable tourism. “While our focus is set on Phase 1, we will ramp up our integrated approach towards the development of Phases 2 and 3 to drive traffic and sustain a regular flow of tourists in the long run,” he said. According to the press statement, AECOM will provide a range of integrated services across the entire