The new controversy shaking PSG has offered an unexpected spotlight to Saudi Arabia. The Paris football club has suspended its Argentine superstar Lionel Messi because of an unauthorized trip to the Wahhabi kingdom, as part of a lucrative contract with the country's tourist office.

The communication operation turned into an international media storm, which came to remind that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, nicknamed MBS, wants to make his country a mecca of world tourism.

#WelcomeMessi to Diriyah, the land of traditions, heritage and history. Leo Messi, his wife Antonella and his sons Mateo and Ciro had an enjoyable tour where they learned about the history of Saudi and met its generous and hospitable people in At-Turaif. pic.twitter.com/vna7y63m2u

— Ahmed Al Khateeb أحمد الخطيب (@AhmedAlKhateeb) May 2, 2023

Tourism is indeed one of the pillars of "Vision 2030", MBS's plan to restructure the Saudi economy, announced in 2016.

And as is often the case, the crown prince's ambitions are excessive: to transform a Wahhabi petro-monarchy with a questionable human rights record, which is also the world's largest oil producer, into a luxury tourist destination. The kingdom even dreams of welcoming some 30 million foreign visitors by 2030, and hopes to create up to one million jobs related to this sector.

Until now, Saudi Arabia, which has five UNESCO World Heritage Sites and is home to the two holiest Islamic sites, Mecca and Medina, has been reserved for Muslim pilgrims.

To understand the stakes and limits of these princely ambitions, France 24 interviewed Karim Sader, political scientist and consultant, specialist in the Gulf.

France 24: Beyond the Messi controversy - against the backdrop of historical rivalry with Qatar - this case has brought back to the forefront the kingdom's ambitions in terms of tourism. How important is this sector in the Vision 2030 program, dear to the crown prince?

Karim Sader: It is clear that Saudi Arabia does not skimp on the means to have an attractive tourism sector. This is part of the new transformations of Saudi society and MBS's desire to promote international influence through his Vision 2030 project. A project in which he seeks to develop different instruments of 'soft power', such as tourism. It is also a way for Riyadh to follow in the footsteps of its neighbors in the Gulf, such as the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, who have understood that to shine internationally, it is also necessary to invest in sectors that have a media impact such as sports, media and tourism. Even if the kingdom has a very rich historical heritage and long obscured by the influence of Wahhabism, like the splendid site of Hegra, which testifies to the Nabataean civilization, it has a lot to do to build the image of a tourist country, logistically and socially speaking.

It is for this reason that MBS has gone out of its way to secure the services of professionals and specialized international groups. But also by hiring at a high price world stars like Lionel Messi to promote the country and serve it, in a way, as a luxury showcase. This same strategy was adopted in the field of sport with the resounding transfer of the famous and very popular Cristiano Ronaldo. An initiative that has proven to be an excellent publicity stunt for Saudi football and its local league, which no one really knows in the West. At the end of March, the Saudis offered themselves a rather media operation with the organization of a concert in the Saudi desert bringing together several artists of French variety, including former First Lady Carla Bruni or Gilbert Montagné, who came to promote the remains of the city of Al-Ula. This is quite revolutionary in itself since it is a pre-Islamic site, whose promotion would have been inconceivable at the height of the influence of the Wahhabi movement on the power and society of the kingdom. However, in Saudi Arabia, paradoxically, it is the crown prince who makes the revolution.

Saudi Arabia has set a goal of creating 200 museums and hosting 400 annual events to attract 30 million tourists by 2030. In your opinion, is this excessive gamble tenable?

As in everything he does, the crown prince wants to go fast and hit hard. This is both its quality and its defect. MBS is revolutionizing society and transforming his country from a kingdom sclerotic by conservatism to a dynamic that would make the United Arab Emirates, a country whose development model fascinates him, pale on paper. It is not only a question of spending lavishly, because in MBS's eyes it is also necessary to make the investments made profitable by creating technology-based tourism, by betting on the construction of smart cities or cities of the future that will attract investors.

However, his tourism project seems far too ambitious and reflects above all a personal frenzy, not to mention that Saudi society must be able to assimilate and digest the radical changes imposed at a rather brutal pace. Even if it is a challenge, and even if he will do everything to achieve it, his bet does not seem realistic to me. Turning the country into a dream tourist destination will take a long time, it will not be as easy as the Saudi leader hopes. It is necessary to give time to the population to train and prepare to welcome the expected flows of tourists and manage the sites. There are tourism site projects that will require the displacement of populations that have been present for several generations, at the risk of creating security unrest and social movements. I take as an example Neom, the city of the future wanted by MBS. This mega-construction project in the middle of the desert is to date a failure and causes tensions locally while it has cost a lot of money and made the fortune of a number of designers, architects and consultants. For me, Neom shows the limits of MBS's ambitions that could backfire.

To attract tourists, you need a peaceful regional climate. Is this also the reason for the Saudi diplomatic hyperactivity of the moment?

The issue of tourism is part of MBS's new policy, which is "the strategy of Saudi first", whose priority is to guarantee the stability of the kingdom in a peaceful regional context, from a security and economic point of view. And this, whatever the cost in terms of alliances, since Riyadh has freed itself from its traditional alliances and conducts an extremely malleable diplomacy that allows it, while maintaining its partnership with Washington, to begin its rapprochement with Tehran in Beijing. Diplomatically, as economically, the Saudis are now investing pragmatically, the time when they spent lavishly is over. The cliché no longer holds.

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