Saudi Consumer Spending Growth Reaches 3.5% With Hotels Leading Gains
Saudi Arabia’s consumer spending rose 3.5 percent to 13.37 billion riyals, roughly 3.57 billion dollars, in the week ending September 26, with hotels, recreation and furniture among the sectors posting the strongest gains, according to official data from the Saudi Central Bank. The number of point-of-sale transactions during the week rose 1 percent to 243.59 million, while education spending dropped sharply, falling 51.5 percent week on week to 87.56 million riyals as the number of education-related transactions declined 34.6 percent.
Economist Talat Hafiz told Arab News the increase reflects Saudi Arabia’s expanding calendar of sporting, entertainment and tourism events, which he said can encourage domestic travel and leisure spending, supporting hotels, recreation, restaurants and related services. He noted that the upcoming Riyadh Season in October could add further momentum, with its packed lineup of sporting and entertainment events likely to draw visitors from across the Kingdom and abroad, boosting tourism-related activity and non-oil economic growth.
Spending on food and beverages reached 2.11 billion riyals, up 1.9 percent, while restaurants and cafes brought in 1.76 billion riyals, up 11.4 percent. Apparel, clothing and accessories totaled 1.18 billion riyals, a rise of 11.3 percent. Gas station transactions came in at 992.76 million riyals, up 1.4 percent, while transportation spending fell 1.5 percent to 946.68 million riyals, dragged down by a 14.9 percent drop in airline spending to 35.89 million riyals.
Hotels stood out as the strongest performer, jumping 20.7 percent to 311.15 million riyals as transaction volumes climbed 21.5 percent. Recreation spending rose 18.5 percent to 253.97 million riyals, and broader recreation and culture spending increased 14 percent to 373.63 million riyals. Hafiz said these trends point to a temporary shift toward domestic, event-driven leisure spending rather than overseas travel, a pattern that in turn supports growth in non-oil revenue. Furniture and home supplies rose 14.5 percent to 576.61 million riyals, personal care spending increased 13.4 percent to 138.45 million riyals, and spending on books and stationery rose 5.6 percent to 119.66 million riyals even as the number of transactions in that category fell 29.8 percent.
Geographically, Riyadh remained the top spending hub at 4.69 billion riyals, though growth there was modest at just 0.5 percent, with transaction volume slipping 0.6 percent to 80.88 million. Jeddah recorded 1.85 billion riyals, up 4.3 percent, with 27.64 million transactions, followed by Dammam at 677.7 million riyals, up 2.1 percent, Makkah at 550.65 million riyals, up 8.4 percent, and Madinah at 536.03 million riyals, up 10 percent.
Hafiz cautioned against reading too much into a single week’s data as a sign of a structural shift away from Riyadh, noting that it remains the Kingdom’s largest point-of-sale market and that its relatively modest 0.5 percent growth likely just reflects spending being distributed more broadly across other cities during the week. He said the more meaningful takeaway is that Saudi Arabia’s growing calendar of sporting, entertainment and tourism events is increasingly shaping consumer spending patterns, encouraging domestic tourism and contributing to broader economic diversification under Vision 2030.
Also Read:
Mahmiyah Forum Drives Research Efforts to Support Nature Reserves
