Qatar makes 95% of their revenue on LNG. These are long-term contracts at fixed prices. Kuwait and Qatar also have the fewest amount of actual citizens that it would need to "pay off".

Ex: During the Arab Spring, Kuwait handed out $500k checks to all Kuwaiti males above 18 years old. He also told the citizenry that he would forgive all car loans - population went and bought ferraris, range rovers, etc. and got the loans all forgiven by the government.

I worry more about the Arab countries that have high populations and cannot afford to pay everyone off - Saudi is on that list.

I never heard of this before and tried to look it up without success.

I did find this Reuters article which mentions "In 2011, to mark three major anniversaries, ruler Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah granted 1,000 dinars to each Kuwaiti and free food rations for 13 months."

1000 dinars ~$3200

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-kuwait-parliament-debt/ku...

> During the Arab Spring, Kuwait handed out $500k checks to all Kuwaiti males above 18 years old.

Do you have a reference for this? I had a look, but it's one of those things that is a bit difficult to search for.

I wish I could find a news source for this, but english newspapers suck in their coverage. I was actually in Kuwait as this happened, so I know it's 100% true. I spent that day being driven around at 130 mph in some guys's new porsche 911 turbo s. Energy industry is wild.

I haven't done much research but that's pretty funny if you're correct. The middle east has done their darndest trying to make sure women feel as unwelcome as possible in their domain. Gonna be tough to establish a tourism industry when you've alienated half the world's population (this isn't even a commentary on women's rights - you simply can't alienate half your customer base and think it's not going to affect you).

Their vastly expensive polluting tourism isn't aimed at people with moral values, and they loosen the rules for tourists. They aren't dumb.

Alienating half of the world's population isn't even as much of a problem, but they also managed to do so in the only way that it is homogeneously distributed over the entire world.

Probably. I have to say though, their advertisements for tourists were a bit.. out there. 50°C+ outside? Come visit us, you can hang out in the AC mall, or go skiing in our fantastic artificial ski hall (all powered by fossil energy of course). Yeah.. no thanks. It's hard for me to imagine that they can keep up with this level of income with just tourism.

That didn't stop UAE from attracting nearly 16M tourists last year.

Only Saudi Arabia beats them (barely) in the Middle East, and that's mostly from religious tourism to Mecca

Saudi Arabia is trying to build tourism? From where?

Didn't they just start to issue tourist visas last year?

I have to say, from flying across in a research airplane that was not allowed to measure (so no work for the scientific crew = lots of time to move from window to window and observe) - it is a colourful country and very beautiful from above. There is black and white, and red and yellow, and the many patterns in the sand and the mountains are interesting. I didn't know they had (extinct) volcanoes either. If I wasn't a woman I might have even considered going.

Don't forget Saudi-Arabia is controlling Mekka, the holiest site of Islam which every Muslim with the means and ability to do so must visit once as a pilgrim in his/her life time. There are something about 1.5 to 1.8 billion Muslim people on this planet, that definitely is a base to build a tourism industry on!

That was my first reaction too, comparing it to somewhere like Doha or Dubai. But maybe religious tourism? [0]

[0] https://qz.com/1684679/the-hajj-pilgrimage-to-saudi-arabias-...

Ever heard of Mada’in Saleh? Saudi Aramco magazine actually used to have a number of articles on those sorts of sites. Plus the Red Sea beaches and diving used to be cool before House of Saud came to power. Just think of Jeddah as Mecca and Riyadh’s slightly stoned cousins.

Dubai is definitely a tourist destination for a small number of hyper-wealthy people. The tourists get to be in the part of the bubble that serves alcohol.

Dubai is definitely a tourist destination, and it's not just for hyper-wealthy people. They get a huge amount of middle class tourism from South Asia and China. There's a wide variety of hotels, from 2* to 7* and you can stay in a superb 5* hotel for $150/night.

It feels like a destination for the hyper-wealthy to Americans because our tourist offerings here are so much better - but not everyone can come here. My best analogy for Dubai is that it's like Vegas without the gambling - and while that may suck for some people, it can definitely be done. Vegas is also done at every price point!

That is true, however Dubai is not in Saudi Arabia. It is part of the U.A.E.

Dubai is certainly a tourist destination but it's not in Saudi Arabia.

It's artificial.

You are forgetting the costs of running a city in the middle of a dessert.

Indeed it would be no mere trifle to run a city in the middle of a dessert.

More of a truffle?