Designing a coastal tourism corridor: Structuring a multi-stop destination experience

Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea coastline offers a unique combination of pristine natural landscapes, rich marine biodiversity, and untapped cultural heritage. However, unlocking its tourism potential requires a shift from isolated developments to integrated, journey-based experiences that encourage longer stays and deeper visitor engagement.

For Ministry of Culture Saudi Arabia, the key challenge was to define how a linear, multi-destination experience could be structured to:

Attract both domestic and international tourists
Deliver compelling and differentiated experiences at each stop
Ensure economic value creation across multiple regions
Maintain environmental sustainability and cultural authenticity

This required a holistic assessment of not only individual destinations, but also the connectivity, sequencing, and overall narrative of the journey.

The grmc Solution

grmc delivered a comprehensive, research-driven advisory combining destination planning, tourism strategy, and economic impact assessment.

Evaluated existing and potential scenic nodes along the Red Sea coastline, assessing the quality, diversity, and readiness of guest experiences and identifying key gaps in hospitality, cultural, and leisure offerings
Assessed tourism demand across domestic, regional, and international segments, defining positioning strategies to differentiate the Coral Highway Experience and align with evolving experiential travel trends
Analysed the full visitor journey, including connectivity, sequencing, and clustering of destinations to create a cohesive, multi-stop tourism corridor
Evaluated economic impact potential, including tourism flows, visitor spend, job creation, and opportunities for SME participation and regional development
Benchmarked comparable global scenic routes to identify best practices in experience design, destination planning, and visitor engagement
Integrated sustainability and cultural considerations, ensuring alignment with environmental preservation and authentic cultural storytelling

Results Achieved

The engagement provided Ministry of Culture Saudi Arabia with a clear and actionable roadmap for the development of the Coral Highway Experience.

Identified high-potential locations and priority nodes for development
Defined a structured, experience-led tourism corridor with strong narrative flow
Established a framework for integrating cultural, environmental, and leisure offerings
Quantified the economic impact and long-term value creation potential

Ultimately, the study enabled the transformation of the Red Sea coastline from a series of standalone sites into a cohesive, world-class tourism journey supporting Vision 2030 objectives of economic diversification, cultural activation, and sustainable tourism development.

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Designing a coastal tourism corridor: Structuring a multi-stop destination experience

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