Courtesy Amr AlMadani

Courtesy Amr AlMadani

Millennia ago, the AlUla region in northwestern Saudi Arabia was a thriving commercial and cultural center, a stop on the trade routes that connected the spices, silks, and other luxuries of Arabia and the East to the customers of the Mediterranean. Evidence of AlUla’s importance is still etched into the sandstone that surrounds this long, narrow strip of lush oasis. At the northern end of the region, in Hegra, a first-century city of the Nabataean Kingdom, some 100 elaborate tombs are carved into the towering stone. Petroglyphs adorn the outcroppings near Dadan, a regional capital in the center of AlUla in the sixth-century BCE. And to the south, a 10th-century stone citadel overlooks the eponymous city of AlUla.

“AlUla has 200,000 years of history, and it’s nearly untouched,” says Amr AlMadani (PLDA 18, 2015). As CEO of the Royal Commission of AlUla, it is AlMadani’s responsibility to chart a future for the historic region, a plan that will include archeological exploration, ecological conservation, and economic development—all with a commitment to inclusivity. The old city of AlUla may be abandoned, but more than 40,000 people live in the region. “They have to be a part of this project from day one,” AlMadani says.

The key to funding those things is tourism, AlMadani says. It’s a brand-new venture for Saudi Arabia, which began offering tourist visas for the first time in the fall of 2019. And it is an ambitious venture. The government hopes that the tourism industry will revitalize the region and account for 10 percent of the country’s GDP in a decade, up from just 3 percent.

The work of drawing global attention to this forgotten swath of the country is part of Saudi Vision 2030, a governmental plan for diversifying the country’s oil-based economy. AlMadani, an entrepreneur who cofounded National Talents Co. to improve STEM education in Saudi Arabia, joined the effort in 2016, shortly after Saudi Vision 2030 was announced. He served as CEO of the General Entertainment Authority before his appointment to lead the Royal Commission of AlUla, in 2017.

In the three-and-half years since then, AlMadani has built the government-funded organization into a hybrid planning authority and tourism board, employing 500 people—more than 40 percent women—with a $2 billion budget and purview over planning and infrastructure, archeology and conversation, and marketing and tourism, among other things. He expects the organization to quadruple in size by 2030. Most of the Royal Commission’s focus has been on building a master plan that will balance the demands of a rapidly growing tourism industry with a commitment to environmental sustainability and inclusive growth. “This is a cultural landscape. We don’t want to get ahead of ourselves in development and ruin all this heritage,” he says. For AlMadani, that means a commitment to preserving the region’s natural landscape and introducing renewable energy sources. It also means embracing the local community.

Among its early efforts to involve the community, the Royal Commission has funded a thousand scholarships for residents pursuing study in areas such as archeology and water management. It also has created jobs through investment in a company producing moringa oil, a plant extract used in cosmetics. “Our community agenda is starting to show some promise,” AlMadani says. “But there’s a long journey [ahead] for us to do what we should do for the community.”

Building a tourism sector from scratch will, itself, be a long journey, but AlUla got a taste of what success could look like in the winter of 2018, when the region played host to the first of what AlMadani hopes will be an annual cultural festival. Events included a stunning hot-air-balloon launch, a 75-mile horseback race, and concerts by Andrea Bocelli and Yanni, hosted in the Maraya Concert Hall.

But the biggest star may have been the region itself. The new 5,000-square-foot concert hall, commissioned by the Royal Commission, is a giant mirrored cube, reflecting the azure skies, golden sands, and craggy mountains of AlUla.

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