Laying the foundations for Saudi Arabia’s cultural renaissance

Since the inception of Vision 2030, Saudi Arabia has placed arts and culture at the heart of its development, from dedicated cultural projects to integrated assets within giga-projects. The Kingdom is now moving from strategy to execution. Cultural offerings, including exhibitions, fashion weeks, music festivals, theater plays and cultural seasons, are in full swing across the country and attracting crowds.

Having opened many new possibilities for the arts and culture, the Kingdom now needs to build additional infrastructure and an ecosystem that will sustain the planned growth of these offerings. This means building venues that span the entire value chain, from creation to production and exhibition, as well as talent development. These facilities include academies, incubators, studios, museums and theaters.

Our research suggests that projects for nearly 150 cultural facilities, representing $70-80 billion by 2030, are already in the pipeline at various stages of development. We estimate that about $7-10 billion of this investment has been spent to date. For large-scale projects in which culture is central, such as the Diriyah Gate Cultural District, King Salman Park with its iconic Royal Arts Complex, Jeddah Central Development, the Red Sea Project and the AlUla Development, cultural investments range from 10 to 30 percent of the total project budget, according to our research.

The overarching goal of these projects is to position Saudi Arabia as a global cultural hub, diversifying the economy and boosting tourism. Cultural investments are expected to contribute revenues of about $20 billion and create more than 100,000 jobs in the sector by 2030. Increased direct spending on culture will also drive indirect spending on hospitality, retail, food and beverage, among other sectors, and raise the value of land and real estate in and around cultural districts.

Much has been achieved in a short time in the Kingdom’s cultural opening. However, much more can and needs to be done to ensure that the renaissance takes root and brings tangible impact.

While this is a significant opportunity to develop truly impactful venues that empower creatives, engage the community and serve as enablers for the growing cultural ecosystem, success factors must be in place to fully capitalize on this investment. Here, we identify some of the most important ones:

The first is the need to develop a clear vision and business plan that is sustainable both operationally and financially in the future. Such a plan could leverage public-private partnerships and tap into diverse revenue streams.

A second success factor is to place cultural assets close to one another, where possible, so they form an integrated district. The benefits of such districts include their ability to attract visitors, create knowledge-sharing platforms, foster cultural identity and social cohesion, realize operational synergies (such as back-office space sharing) and develop a collaborative creative community. The Kingdom is already adopting this approach with the Royal Arts Complex and other facilities.

Involving artists and communities in development efforts is a third success factor, as it will allow for the design of a human-centric user experience and help preserve cultural identity.

Disciplined and agile execution is a fourth success factor. This includes a structured approach to execution, identifying and mitigating risks early on, defining clear timelines, roles and responsibilities and embedding contingencies in the plan. Maintaining frequent and open communication among the various parties can prevent time delays and budget overruns, ensuring that changes in strategy or design requirements are effectively reflected in the execution.

A fifth factor is the ability to strike a balance between environmental sustainability ambitions, budget and the impact achieved. Setting a sustainability plan at the project inception can infuse sustainability considerations into all phases of the project life cycle, including design, development and operations. Saudi Arabia is already blending sustainability and cultural heritage in several projects, including Diriyah’s LEED platinum certification for pedestrian spaces, local materials and eco-friendly transport, Ithra’s LEED gold certification with its xeriscaping, smart irrigation and a heat-reducing steel-tube facade mirroring the traditional mashrabiyah and King Salman Park, which integrates rainwater harvesting, green spaces and energy-efficient technology.

Other elements that will need to be in place include talent training programs for the workforce required to operate the venues, a calendar of events that activates districts and assets year-round, ensuring a constant flow of both visitors and tourists, strategic and operational partnerships that help the projects achieve their scale ambitions and fast-tracked execution timelines and guidelines for cultural activations tailored to different regions to ensure consistency, quality, safety and alignment with broader cultural, social, environmental and urban objectives among stakeholders.

Much has been achieved in a short time in the Kingdom’s cultural opening. However, much more can and needs to be done to ensure that the renaissance takes root and brings tangible impact. The new building phase necessary to ensure lasting impact is already underway. If well managed and successful, this transformation will increase the quality of life for residents, raise Saudi Arabia’s appeal to tourists and turn culture into one of the Kingdom’s economic pillars.

• Nay Abi Ramia is a partner at Strategy& Middle East and Alia Mobayed is a director at PwC Middle East.