We know that Saudi Arabia is investing a lot of money to build its non-religious tourism sector. One common question we’ve seen has been if/when the country will lift its ban on alcohol. As of now, there has seemingly not been much movement when it comes to alcohol for visitors. That being said, the country has just quietly expanded alcohol sales in a pretty major way.
In this post:
Saudi Arabia now sells alcohol to wealthy expats
Bloomberg is reporting that Saudi Arabia has quietly expanded alcohol sales within the country in a material way. As a reminder, the country has banned alcohol for over 70 years, with very limited exceptions.
In 2024, we saw the introduction of an alcohol store in Riyadh, though it was initially exclusively open to foreign diplomats, with strict limits on how much they can purchase. Access to this has now been expanded to non-Muslim foreigners with “premium residency” status, which is generally given to educated foreigners who work for major corporations in the country. Having the visa requires spending at least 30 months over the past five years in the country (so at least half of your time).
Furthermore, there’s an income requirement, as the store is only open to those earning at least 50,000 riyals per month, equivalent to roughly $13,300 (and apparently a salary certificate has to be shown when registering to visit the store, in order to prove this).
Access to the store requires making reservations, and there’s a points-based system that limits how much total alcohol can be purchased.
Interestingly, there has been no official announcement from the country about this change, probably by design. Reports suggest that more of these stores are expected to open in the near future, including in other major cities in Saudi Arabia.
It’s only a matter of time before alcohol sales expand
While Saudi Arabia is starting slow, it’s pretty clear the direction the country is headed when it comes to selling alcohol. It was already a big move when the country started selling alcohol to diplomats. Now selling alcohol to rich foreigners is a pretty major development. I’d argue that the next step in all of this is also pretty obvious…
Ever since Saudi Arabia announced its lofty tourism ambitions, I’ve been curious to see how long it would take for the country to lift its ban on alcohol. To me, it’s a question of “when,” and not “if,” and one of the major tests of seeing how serious Saudi Arabia is about its ambitions.
People can debate all day long whether society is too dependent on alcohol, etc., but the point is that if you’re looking to attract visitors from around the globe as a leisure destination, alcohol in at least some venues is an expectation. Saudi Arabia has very ambitious tourism goals, and one of (several) reasons that some people don’t want to visit the country is because of the alcohol ban.
If you’re trying to gain market share in an industry (in this case Middle Eastern tourism), you have to look at what successful competitors are doing. There’s no better example of this than Dubai, which isn’t exactly a conservative place nowadays. Keep in mind that Saudi Arabia and Kuwait are the only two countries in the region that have a full-on ban on alcohol consumption for visitors.
Bottom line
Saudi Arabia is expanding alcohol sales. In 2024, the country set up a store selling alcohol in Riyadh, but it was limited to foreign diplomats. Now the store has quietly also opened up to wealthy foreigners on eligible visas.
It’s only a matter of time before alcohol sales expand to tourists (at least in some regions), if Saudi Arabia is serious about building this industry. I’m just curious if we’re talking months or years before those rules change…
When do you make of Saudi Arabia loosening alcohol restrictions, and when do you think we’ll see a more widespread policy change?
Saudi Arabia will be off of my "no go" list when they decriminalize being gay. Right now, it's the death penalty, so no thanks.
You're missing nothing anyway. It's a dump, the entire region is bar Oman and Yemen.
The entire country is a charade. Nothing is fundamentally changing there despite all the media promoting such changes.
Stop promoting this hellhole once and for all and stop giving the region any sort of damn credit. It's all smoke and mirrors.
The unworldly ignorance of some who post herein never fails to disappoint.
The organ grinder would be well advised to teach the monkey how to spell as well as dancing to your merry tunes …. :-)
They could legalize weed, coke and Molly, still never gonna set a foot in that place
Good, there's the square root of nothing there anyway.
Ah, the beauty of religious hypocrisy...
Infidels will be allowed to get moderately sloshed officially...
It's the same thing with most Islamic scholars who consider painting people or other living beings (animate beings) to be haram (forbidden), but it is somehow okay for Saudis et al to parade themselves on TV or social media (images in digital, rather than in ink...)
"most Islamic scholars" suggests a consensus that does not exist. Or, a monolith. You generalize from the narrow. In the same way that there is no consensus among Buddhist, Christian, Jewish, Sikh, Taoist, etc. scholars. Islam is a diverse faith. Even a thousand years ago, it was diverse.
The entire country is a goddamn land of double standards/hypocrisy and will fight back if you ever dare point it out.
There is no way on this planet that anyone who is not a hereosexual cis-male of Arab descent and preferably related to the House of Saud should ever visit that sandblasted oil-soaked hellhole.
They have great camping and scuba diving and beaches.
All these things can be done elsewhere with the baggage and risk.
It's their culture. It's their tradition. It's their choice. No one should arrogate the issue and impose one's own morals on someone else.
"It's their culture. It's their tradition. It's their choice." is a lazy argument, and it proves too much. By this logic, no one could ever criticize any practice anywhere: slavery was a tradition, apartheid was a culture, denying women the vote was a choice. The argument collapses into defending whatever the powerful decide to do.
Moreover, Saudi Arabia doesn't extend this courtesy to others. They actively judge and punish people, including visitors, for violating their...
"It's their culture. It's their tradition. It's their choice." is a lazy argument, and it proves too much. By this logic, no one could ever criticize any practice anywhere: slavery was a tradition, apartheid was a culture, denying women the vote was a choice. The argument collapses into defending whatever the powerful decide to do.
Moreover, Saudi Arabia doesn't extend this courtesy to others. They actively judge and punish people, including visitors, for violating their moral standards. If mutual respect means not "imposing morals," then executions and floggings for moral violations would be off the table too.
Finally, expressing an opinion isn't "arrogating the issue" or imposing anything. The commenters have no power over Saudi Arabia. They're simply deciding whether to visit and explaining why. That's the marketplace of ideas, not moral imperialism.
Wonderful news! This is the beginning of a liberalization of the Muzlim world.
Other ‘1990’ please note that O.G. is still on the fence about KSA… while I’m no fan of murdering journalists, I do prefer moderates over fundamentalists… you got a better idea? Oh, and I’d spell it Muslim, but, you do you.
You're an idiot if you think that's even possible.
Sounds like it may be easier to get a Hermes bag than a bottle of vodka in Saudi Arabia.
$160k/year is rich?
It is an odd way to gatekeep this.
What the hell are you talking about, bub? Gatekeep? Define.
For discussion sake what level of income per year and which country perspective do you estimate tilts the needle from middle class category to rich category?
Currency is relative, so yes, in some places, it really is. Clown.
Years ago when I was a young Registered Nurse, King Faisal Hospital extended an invitation to my and several other male Nurses that I worked with to come to the Kingdom and work at that hospital for a period of time offering housing and outrageous salaries, regular paid trips to Europe etc. We were intrigued until we discovered what their thoughts on gay folk like us were / are.
So No, No, and NEVER to that little corner of the world.
All fun and games until a drunk tourist does something that results in their head being chopped off.
on HBO
It says more about the country on who it excludes from this new policy allowing to purchase alcohol, mainly the thousands of "guest" workers who will never meet this income threshold.
Because the entire land is full of charades and smokescreens.
Imagine being the SOB who makes $13,299 a year and doesn't have a "premium" visa.
The reality is folks in the KSA have been drinking alcohol in ex-pat compounds and at embassies for years. Including very well-connected Saudi citizens.
This!!!
And European whores flown in regularly.
Can confirm even the locals smuggle the booze in from Bahrain etc too.
While I definitely have some issues with human rights issues in Saudi (hence me having no plans to visit, despite the fact that I find the place fascinating), I am absolutely fine with it being a dry country. I do have my daily martini after work at home, and a glass of wine with dinner, but being able to experience a different culture is something I do appreciate. Would I live there? absolutely not. Would...
While I definitely have some issues with human rights issues in Saudi (hence me having no plans to visit, despite the fact that I find the place fascinating), I am absolutely fine with it being a dry country. I do have my daily martini after work at home, and a glass of wine with dinner, but being able to experience a different culture is something I do appreciate. Would I live there? absolutely not. Would going a few days without alcohol be an issue? not really - I actually feel like I'd enjoy it.
And I agree with Ben that the alcohol ban is likely to ease considerably as the country opens itself more to tourists. If I were a betting man, I'd say that within a couple of decades it will give the UAE a real run for its money.
There's the square root of nothing there anyway. How can you find a place desolate of ANYTHING be interesting?
Ah, so, the Maldives 'exception'... got it.
And for those that want the Indian Ocean, but don't want the... um... you know... please consider Seychelles, Zanzibar, Reunion, Mauritius, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Bali, etc.
Yeah, no dice. As unpredictable as the US is becoming, I'll still visit there. I'll definitely not be visiting a country that is both sweaty balls hot and also has a mercurial tyrant in charge who will make no bones about chopping up his enemies.
I see what you did there... 'no bones' haha
But hey, if I could have a few cocktails first, maybe sweaty balls would be a nice reward!!
Not visiting a country because you can’t have a drink is kind of wild
Welcome to the world.
Eh, this is still nothing like enough to make me want to travel to Saudi Arabia, or fly with a Saudi airline. A place where homos can lose their heads and raped women have been publicly flogged for "adultery" is not my idea of a fun destination, booze or not.
On behalf of us homos, let me thank all bogans and other forms of disgusting low-life white trash for helping to defend us.
If the people you deride as bogans and disgusting low-life white trash didn't help defend us, gays would still be getting locked-up for having sex in private, fired from their jobs, and banned from the public service.
Unfortunately my personal opinion is that there's very little about any of the petrostates that makes me want to visit, take their airlines, or contribute to their economies.
Good, there's the square root of nothing there anyway.