Analytical study of hospitality culture and urban identity and its impact on the future of marine tourism in Red Sea coastal port cities: case study of Jeddah Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Jeddah, ‘the Bride of the Red Sea’ is the oldest and most famous coastal port city in Saudi Arabia. Around 3000 years old, it has hosted pilgrims and visitors and developed, spatial and cultural approaches to welcome visitors. This is currently termed religious tourism, as the number of pilgrims from outside the Kingdom this year reached 1,660,915 through various ports and 6,831 through sea ports(Statistics, 2022).

This research positions this growth strategy within the cultural heritage traditions and spatial, cultural, and social identity of hospitality in future passenger port in Jeddah and Saudi Arabia. It seeks to design the forward-facing context for Jeddah as part of the repositioning of Saudi as a global tourist destination by developing a better understanding of the culture and spatiality of Saudi hospitality coastal city designs.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is currently developing actions in relation to its Vision 2030 policy, introduced in March 2017, that aims to reshape the Saudi economy away from extractive industries. A critical part of this policy is developing tourism as a major aspect of future activity(Vision, 2017). Since the launch of cruise trips in the Kingdom, 170500 passengers have taken part in 65 trips(CruiseSaudi, 2024). This will lead to major development in Jeddah significant development to accommodate cruise liners and their passengers as an outcome of this, with a goal of increasing the number of visitors by one million by the year 2025, as part of the Kingdom's Vision 2030 initiative on Quality-of-life programs.

This study presents findings based on a literature review that charts the evolution and development of hospitality in Jeddah, identifying developments and changes to spaces of hospitality over time with a particular focus on the forms of building and urban space that have been created during this process. Additionally, how is this modernity affecting the identity and user experience in the space compared to how they used to be and considering them now as non-places? (Auge, 2010).

The work will enable future developments to be positioned effectively within the context of Vision 2030 in addition to the significant changes to hospitality, arrival infrastructure and passenger demographics that will arise in future. The result is a critique and dialogue between past rituals, culture and future aspirations, thus improving the quality of tourists' experiences during their visit to the Kingdom.