The Future Hospitality Summit (FHS) Saudi Arabia will return to the Mandarin Oriental Al Faisaliah in Riyadh from April 20-22, 2026 following the success of this year’s event, which brought together over 1,100 global hospitality investors, innovators and senior decision-makers and facilitated 11 high-profile hotel signings and strategic announcements, reinforcing Saudi Arabia’s drive to deliver over 362,000 new hotel rooms by 2030 through its $10 billion tourism development pipeline as part of Vision 2030.
Across this year’s summit delegates
reported $1.6 billion in business opportunities, underscoring FHS’s role as
the region’s premier deal-making forum.
Under next year’s theme “Where Opportunity Meets
Capital,” FHS Saudi Arabia 2026 will unite hospitality leaders and
decision-makers to discuss hotel performance and development, the outlook for
hospitality investment in the Kingdom and the key market trends driving the
sector, aiming for actionable outcomes that will transform the industry, which
continues to witness unprecedented growth.
Comprising some of the hospitality
industry’s most prominent leaders, the FHS 2026 Saudi Arabia Advisory Board met
in Riyadh last week to discuss what’s driving Saudi hospitality, and provided
perspectives on the opportunities and challenges facing the Kingdom’s tourism
sector as the journey toward Vision 2030 accelerates.
Top insights that emerged from the
discussions included the opportunity to further proliferate homegrown Saudi
hospitality brands that define the Kingdom’s identity; the development of
experience-driven and organic tourism segments; and the global boom in branded
residences—with under-construction projects up 455% over the past decade—and
what this growth could mean for the sector in Saudi Arabia.
Participants also highlighted the need for
greater clarity around evolving foreign ownership and FDI laws, particularly as
interest in branded residential offerings continues to rise.
The rapid pace of new development in the
Kingdom, which represents the biggest hotel pipeline in the region, also
highlighted several areas of strategic focus to ensure development plans remain
on track, including the need for more robust industry data and pipeline
visibility.
With
approximately 50 percent of new developments coming from the luxury segment, a rebalance between luxury and mid market
segments would be critical.
In addition, the reliance on traditional
finance models and the banking sector was raised with the need to diversify to
alternative forms of debt financing such as capital markets, in line with new
Government regulations.
These, and a range of other topics will be featured
across six content themes in the FHS Saudi Arabia 2026 agenda: Investment &
Real Estate, Technology & Innovation, Talent & Education, Wellness
& Lifestyle, F&B and Experiences and the dedicated Branded Residences
Forum.
Jonathan Worsley, Chairman of The Bench,
said: “Our Advisory Board meetings are instrumental in helping us steer our
conference agendas and we were thrilled to have so many of the industry’s most
senior leaders in the room in Riyadh last week. We look forward to another
milestone event in 2026, driven by the industry, for the industry.”
Abuhaimed, Chief Executive Officer, Al
Khozama Investments commented:” “Hosting FHS reflects our continued involvement
in shaping the hospitality landscape in Saudi Arabia. The summit brings
together leaders who are actively defining the sector’s next phase, and we
value the opportunity to contribute our experience in this dialogue. As Saudi
advances its tourism ambitions, we remain committed to supporting the market
with measured, high-quality development.” -TradeArabia News Service