Saudi Arabia is pulling back government money from NEOM and its Red Sea resorts, redirecting Vision 2030 toward AI. The tourism moonshot is being scaled down.
The Desert Moonshot Hits A Budget
For most of the past decade, Saudi Arabia sold the travel world the most audacious story going. Vision 2030, launched in 2016, was the plan to wean the Kingdom off oil, and tourism was supposed to be one of the pillars holding it up. The centerpiece was NEOM, a $500 billion development announced in 2017 and meant to rise from empty…
