nonthaburi

https://www.arabnews.com/node/1549451/saudi-arabia

scrubbedexpat141

Having been involved in some of the work at places mentioned, it's ****ing spectacular what is there to see, historically especially, and is criminal that it's behind an old, locked immigration policy. Opening it up is fantastic news.

weasel decentral

Serious question- what do you think any of these resorts offer that's any different to resorts in any country along the Red sea? I'm expecting the tourism to be pretty much restricted to being behind the high walls of an all inclusive sun lounger holiday. Am I missing something.

Bar a few old quarters of Riyadh and similar old villages I have never seen much of historic value in KSA. I'm assuming Mecca and the other holy spots are off the menu still for non Muslims.

scrubbedexpat141

Nothing, nothing different at all for a lot of them. Just the same again I guess.

AlUla mentioned in the article is pretty spectacular though and holds great ancient significance. So if that floats your boat it opens up a superb opportunity for you.
If it doesn't then I hope you like over-water villas and tucked in duvets.

weasel decentral

Neither idea floats my boat to be fair, I just like the fact that incrementally Saudi will open up, a little more openness in that region can't be a bad thing. I'm on the fence about whether they will ever get fully delivered though.

scrubbedexpat141

Definitely on the fence too....however we have single women working for us in client organisations in Riyadh as we speak. Doing a great job, earning praise from clients and impressing them. It's fantastic how far it's come in a short space....it's just still so so so far behind. A few generations though, they'll get there.

weasel decentral

To be fair there were plenty of single women working in organisations in KSA when I was there 8-9 years ago now, though probably not as client facing as you describe. My hope is that big projects suck all reasonably average and downright useless construction types into KSA for a good few years !

Charl01

I recently left Jeddah after a 4 year stint...….. I will go back NOW if given the opportunity.

Work life is challenging yes, but it is getting better. Social life is great !!

scrubbedexpat141

Oh it is buddy.

It's also a bit of a race to get there, which is weird. Get there before Dubai crashes and everyone else wants to go. Get there on a decent package before they realise they don't need to be paying X% more. Get there quick!

jam25mack

So are you thinking about it?

Not sure my Mrs would appreciate a move too much.... and I'm guessing we'd need to be married.

In one of my social groups here theres about 6-7 of them now flying in and out of KSA, whereas it only ever used to be 1-2 max.

We as a company are working on several of the mega projects there and they seem to be coming up every week.

scrubbedexpat141

Had a conversation with a company about going but the money wasn't worth it.
The mrs is doing really well here so to go there and potentially just me work it needs to be a silly offer. If she works as well then compromise, but we don't need to go yet.

Work aren't going to make me go anytime soon. I've just taken a regional role and it's purely MENA now so no more India and Sydney trips thankfully. We'll see how it goes but I'm getting my KSA visa to do visits.

We're bidding big and small every week. Working out what's real, what's winnable and what's spurious is really hard it seems.

Would I go? Possibly. It seems to be where the region is heading. Would the Mrs like it there? Would it be nice for her to be there? Would it be nice to force her to follow me there? We're a team, we make decisions together so we'd have to work it out together if it ever became a real option.

Millhouse

Sounds like she is the boss and you're staying put.

Millhouse

My only thought on the 50 countries granted visa-free travel is that, I would imagine, 48 of them consist mostly of people who would not go to Saudi if their life depended on it. Those with a genuine interest to go (looking at you Pakistan and Indonesia) will probably not be on the list. The Chinese will flood the place searching for construction contracts if they haven't already.

co durham boy

Dubai's already crashed chief

scrubbedexpat141

As funny as that is, I'm a millenial. We aren't dinosaurs, we treat women as humans. Occasionally.