Cruise Saudi — The PIF Subsidiary Building Saudi Arabia's Maritime Tourism Industry

Mon, 27 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Cruise Saudi is the Public Investment Fund-owned cruise tourism company founded in 2021 to develop Saudi Arabia’s maritime tourism industry from a near-zero base into a strategically significant pillar of the broader Vision 2030 ambition to raise tourism’s contribution to GDP from 3 per cent to 10 per cent by 2030. The Jeddah-headquartered company operates AROYA Cruises — Saudi Arabia’s first and only cruise line, established as a Cruise Saudi subsidiary in 2023 — anchors the new Jeddah International Cruise Terminal & Marina under development with Jeddah Central Development Company (JCDC), and serves as the institutional partner behind Aman at Sea, the luxury maritime joint venture with Aman Group whose flagship newbuild superyacht Amangati enters service in May 2027. Through this integrated portfolio, Cruise Saudi has converted the Kingdom from an unrepresented cruise market — Saudi Arabia hosted essentially no domestic cruise operations before 2021 — into a regional cruise hub with operating presence across the Red Sea, the Arabian Gulf, and (during the summer season) the Eastern Mediterranean from Istanbul, with itineraries serving Saudi national tourism objectives, Saudi national-identity expression through onboard cultural programming, and the broader regional cruise tourism market that contemporary international operators (Costa, MSC, Celestyal, Norwegian, AIDA) increasingly recognise as a structural growth segment.

Cruise Saudi — Tag Hub on SAUDI VISION 2030 Intelligence Platform

Cruise Saudi — The PIF Subsidiary Building Saudi Arabia's Maritime Tourism Industry