Sustainable Tourism Cooperation between Saudi Arabia and Indonesia: Implementation of the 2022 Ministerial MoU

Abstract

As Saudi Arabia implements its Saudi Vision 2030 to diversify its economy from oil-and-gas dependency, extensive tourism development initiatives have been launched as one of the key elements of the Saudi Vision 2030 agenda. Meanwhile, the Government of Indonesia, through the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy, has identified an opportunity to support Saudi Arabia's tourism development efforts by promoting sustainable tourism, as outlined in Indonesia's National Long Term Development Plan (RPJPN) 2005-2025. In 2022, both countries signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) under the auspices of their respective tourism ministries, agreeing to cooperate on joint tourism promotion, information exchange, and sharing best practices. This qualitative research uses Lawrence B. Mohr’s physical causality approach to chronologically describe the causes and effects from implementation of this cooperation, highlighting the efforts made by both countries from 2022 until 2024. Recent findings indicate that cooperation in the exchange of information and the sharing best practices still requires significant attention, while joint tourism promotion undergo fruitful impacts for both nations.