The lucky countries where domestic tourist spending provides a windfall amid the collapse in international leisure travel

Russians spend US$20 billion more abroad each year than Russia earns from incoming travel. Now, they are looking for holiday options within their own country

‘We don’t need to go abroad,’ says a Saudi holidaying at home, a sentiment that would be music to the ears of any nation with vacationers stymied by flight bans

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Tourists enjoy a free foot washing service in Huaian, Jiangsu province, China. Some countries are hopeful that by promoting staycations, they can keep their tourism industries alive until the pandemic is over. Photo: Barcroft Media via Getty Images

Published: 3:05pm, 14 Jul 2020Updated: 7:25pm, 15 Jul 2020

When the pandemic hobbled Saudi Arabia’s plans to become a global tourism hub just months after opening its borders for the first time, officials looked for the bright side.

There won’t be any foreign holidaymakers sunning on the kingdom’s beaches this summer. But there’s a new market to woo: Saudis trapped at home.

Along with countries around the world that are trying to recoup some of their tourism losses through domestic travel, the government leaned into the disruption, stoking patriotic sentiment with calls for a “Saudi summer”.

“The amount of constraint that people are feeling, the suffocation – this is a chance,” Fahd Hamidaddin, chief executive of the Saudi Tourism Authority, said during a video conference to announce the strategy.

Shoppers in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia. Photo: AFP

The novel coronavirus has decimated tourism, putting a giant dent into the tenth of global economic output that the industry accounts for.

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