Executives at Saudi Arabia’s giga-project, Neom, have revealed updated timelines for the multi-billion-dollar development. Some milestones are near-term and well-defined, such as Trojena, which is set to welcome guests in two years. Others, like The Line, are more open-ended.
Neom is the flagship project of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030, an initiative aimed at transforming the country’s economy. It comprises several zones: Magna, Oxagon, Sindalah, Trojena, and The Line, with the potential for more to come.
Comparable in size to a large U.S. state or small European country, and with an estimated budget exceeding $500 billion, Neom has faced skepticism since its 2017 unveiling. Reports of delays—often citing unnamed sources—have circulated frequently.
Neom recently released a series of video updates featuring department heads at last month’s World Economic Forum in Davos.
“In terms of the delivery of assets, we have some key assets coming down the road,” said Neom’s head of tourism, Niall Gibbons, in one of the videos. “Trojena will host the Asia Winter Games in 2029 and open for business in 2027. Magna will be ready in a few years’ time. The Line—a multi-generational project—will take a little longer.”
Though not mentioned by Gibbons, Sindalah opened last year.
Gibbons emphasized that the Gulf countries and Saudi Arabia will be the primary sources of visitors in the initial phase, consistent with recent remarks from the country’s Minister of Tourism.
“In the initial phase of the opening, there is no doubt that a lot of our [Neom’s] visitors will be domestic ones,” Gibbons explained in the video. “Then the GCC will represent approximately 15% of our visitors. The main markets outside the GCC, from about five years onward, will be China, India, Europe, and North America, at about 10% each. Those are the markets [where] we’re going out to big travel shows. There has been a huge interest.”
Neom has said it wants five million tourists annually by 2030, according to a 2019 press release. Given Neom’s vast scale, this figure is relatively modest, comparable to annual visitor numbers in Athens or Venice. Despite this, Gibbons acknowledged the potential for overtourism concerns.
“We’re very familiar with the term overtourism now in the industry. For Neom, we’re keen to develop the concept of ‘under tourism,’” he said. “People want to go to places that are less developed, less well-traveled, and new on the world map. That’s what Neom brings from a tourism perspective in the years to come.”
Neom did not respond to Skift’s requests for additional comment.
Trojena Facing No Development Problems
In another video detailing progress at Trojena, officials said the site is developing well, accelerated by the need to be ready for the Asia Winter Games in 2029.
Philip Gullett, Executive Director of Trojena, said in a video interview: “[Delays are] not something we’re experiencing, we’ve got the Asia Winter Games [in 2029]. We’re full speed ahead, there is no shortage of resources that we’re experiencing and we continue to ramp up the development.”
“Our priority is the Asia Winter Games. The games will act as a showcase and really mark the opening of Trojena.”
Diriyah group CEO Jerry Inzerillo in a previous interview with Skift suggested that The Line is facing delays as Trojena demands to be sped up.
“See, everybody is focused on what they think Neom is struggling with. Here’s how to look at it: There was a lot of money originally committed to Neom, but that money didn’t take into consideration the Kingdom would win the bid for the 2029 Winter Games in Trojena. So now, with the whole world going there to see the Winter Games, you need to put a lot of money into building Trojena.”
“Trojena could’ve been built after The Line, but now it’s before The Line. You need Trojena for 2029. A lot of it isn’t austerity, quite the opposite. It’s redirecting where the money goes.”
The Line Now a ‘Generational’ Project
A separate video provided insight into the progress at The Line — a 170-kilometer-long indoor city planned for the Saudi desert. Bloomberg reported in April last year, citing unnamed sources, that The Line’s initial scope has been significantly reduced, with only 2.4 kilometers expected to be completed by 2030. The remainder of the project will extend over a much longer timeframe.
In an interview published on the Neom YouTube channel, Denis Hickey, Chief Development Officer of The Line, acknowledged that the project remains in its “early” stages.
“The Line is in the early works. We’re designing as we’re building. We’re doing all of the excavation, putting the piles in the ground. Then we’ll start to become vertical later this year,” he said.
“The Line is designed to be unlike any other city ever built. Ultimately, it’s being masterplanned to host nine million people — the size of London or New York City. That’s a big ask; it’ll take 100 years or whatever to fill that.”
This nine million resident target was first mentioned in a 2022 press release by the Saudi government’s press agency. When The Line was first announced in 2021 via the same Saudi Press Agency, no timeline was given.
Hickey stressed that, much like world-class tourism sites around the world, the Line is built around having “anchor assets,” similar to Paris’ Arc de Triomphe and Louvre.
“We have the city anchored with these large-scale anchor assets. For example, it has been very public: the Line and Neom have been selected as part of the 2034 FIFA games. We will be building a stadium here that starts at level 350 in the air, that is the height of the Empire State Building is where the playing pitch will be.”
“This Stadium will be like nothing you have ever seen. It’ll hold 45,000 people, and it will be incredible, and we’re well into design.”
Hickey refers to The Line as a “multi-generational” project. It remains unclear when The Line’s first phase is projected to be complete.
Addressing skepticism surrounding the initiative, he acknowledged the need for better communication. “It has captivated the world, and it has polarized the world. A cohort will say it’s horrific and terrible. The onus is on us to communicate. The Line is deeply rooted in logic.”
Neom’s regions have released their own projections. Trojena projects 700,000 tourists by 2030, according to its website. Sindalah expects 876,000 visitors by 2028, according to a release from Neom in 2024. Magna is targeting 300,000 guests by 2030, according to its website. As for Oxagon, the area is mainly a logistics hub and does not have set tourist targets.
That leaves around 3.2 million tourists expected to go to Neom by 2030 without even taking into consideration that a guest of one area is likely to be the same guest of another.
