2024-07-11
10 分钟Hello, I'm Rosie Blore.
I host The Intelligence, our daily news and current affairs podcast.
Welcome to Editor's Picks.
Here's an article we've chosen from the latest edition of The Economist.
Recent events in Saudi Arabia have not been a good advert for tourism.
Between 2 million and 3 million Muslims visit the country each year for the Hajj,
the annual five-day pilgrimage that all Muslims aspire to do at least once.
Last month, as temperatures exceeded 50 degrees centigrade,
more than 1,300 people died, many from heat stress.
The country's authorities have been castigated for failing to take care of the pilgrims.
Despite the calamities this year, believers will still flock to the desert kingdom.
In 2023, some 13.5 million people came for the Umrah,
a lesser pilgrimage that takes place all year round.
But for many non-Muslims,
the conservative country is not high on their travel bucket lists.
Saudi Arabia is better known for its crude oil reserves,
autocratic governance and use of the death penalty than for its sightseeing or luxury resorts.
Saudi authorities are eager to change that.
Tourism is a key part of Vision 2030, an economic reform plan announced in 2016.
Mohammed bin Salman, or MBS, the Crown Prince,