2.2. Tourism in a Closed Country
The reliance of Peninsular nation states on oil rent to fund and maintain their governments and political structures from the early twentieth century is no secret. Yet, the end of the twentieth century had forced many gulf governments to begin reassessing their heavy reliance on oil rents. Beginning in the early 1980s, OPEC countries attempted to stabilize global oil prices by cutting production several times but ultimately unsuccessful in persuading non-OPEC countries to simultaneously do so. The outcome was Described by the New York Times in 1981 as the “Oil Glut”, and the price crisis created by this glut would prove to be challenging to international business unlike any other oil price drops.[1] This led Saudi Arabia, then the largest oil producing member of OPEC, to increase production and ultimately sustain a six-year decrease in global oil prices. This glut was foreshadowed by the Iranian Revolution, followed by the Iran-Iraq war, and an adjustment to the all-time price highs seen during the early 1970s. There is a definitive link that begins to form between American thirst for unfettered access to oil in Arab countries and its relationship to said countries in the trade of arms.[2]
Internally, a cultural war was brewing that would bring the government face to face with its endeavors into modernity and the luxuries that petrocapital accumulation permitted. In 1979, a fanatic religious group led by Juhayman surprisingly took over the Mecca Grand Mosque in an attempt to topple the Saudi government and herald in the end of times.[3] This group of “religious extremists believed that the society around them was filled with infidels and that they must use force to change that situation”.[4] The two week-long ordeal, which came to a violent end on December 5 of 1979, was made possible after the Saudi Forces were allowed to conduct a raid to rescue trapped worshippers and end the siege with the arrest of the surviving members of the terrorist group.
What took place after the siege, from a cultural perspective, set the country back in its mission for progress and development. By the early 1990s, the government had somehow ceded its cultural power over governance to the wills of the fundamentalist Sahwa religious movement.[5] In cultural terms, it was largely seen that Juhayman’s group may have “lost the battle but won the war” as the government reinforced the power of the religious establishment in all aspects of governance.[6] Perhaps one of the most illustrative effects of the Sahwa movement, and namely after the siege of the Grand Mosque, was the rupture in the momentum of the government’s patronage of museums and cultural institutions.
American involvement in the region, particularly its proxy war with the USSR in Afghanistan, would prove to be detrimental to Saudi Arabia, and the world, down the line.[7] And Saudi Arabia’s involvement in the Gulf War would also come to galvanize other means of resistance to its modernization plans envisioned in the early 1970s. Yet, quietly, along the way King Fahd would set a precedent for putting in place an order for succession, a plan for municipal and representative governance was steadily gaining momentum concurrently with the reconstruction efforts to the damage sustained by the Gulf War, however negligible in comparison to other neighboring countries. There is evidence to suggest that the oil slump of 1993 might have helped propel these changes with government revenues being directly linked to oil rents.[8] Within this decade, terrorist attacks by known affiliates of Al Qaeda, a terrorist group that formed following the fall of the USSR and America’s continued involvement in Afghanistan, and the region.[9] An ill forgotten history that weighed heavily on Saudi society throughout the nineties was the violence perpetrated by members of this fundamentalist group. There is no doubt about the impacts of these acts of, direct and indirect, violence targeting Saudi nationals and foreigners alike hijacked the government’s attempts at dislodging itself from the grips of religious fundamentalism and its violence.
What did take place by the end of the 1990s, however, was a clear turn towards the center. The center, from which all claims to political legitimacy over governance, revolved around the history of the state and its founding at the hands of late King Abdulaziz ibn Saud. In 1999, on the Centennial anniversary of King Abdulaziz’s takeover of Riyadh, King Fahd attended the official opening of the newly designed cultural and civic heart of Riyadh in the Al Murabba neighborhood.[10] This cultural center was designed by world renown architects of Moriyama Teshima Architects. The Museum boasts 399,000 square feet, and a site area of 83 acres.[11] Of interest is the National Museum, which would come to be known as the King Abdulaziz Center for Culture, and the cultural narrative it would tell about the Arabian Peninsula. Moreover, the national museum would come to play a significant role in the early development of the tourism sector. By 2000, King Fahd announced the creation of the Supreme Council on Tourism. The Council, headed by Prince Sultan ibn Abdulaziz, was established to provide the ministerial and administrative support to the Council of Ministers in the creation and legislation of a government led tourism industry.[12] It is important to point out here that Saudi Arabia was not an open country at the time.
A welcoming infrastructure open to tourism was not in place. Women were not allowed to drive, and most women needed permission to travel alone or issue travel documents.[13] Though an earnest shift in governmental patronage of culture and heritage began to take shape by the end of the twentieth century, the early 2000s would prove to be even more challenging to the country’s aspirations for change.
Robert D. Hershey Jr, “HOW THE OIL GLUT IS CHANGING BUSINESS,” The New York Times, June 21, 1981, sec. Business, https://www.nytimes.com/1981/06/21/business/how-the-oil-glut-is-changing-business.html; Robert D. Hershey Jr and Special to the New York Times, “Worrying Anew Over Oil Imports,” The New York Times, December 30, 1989, sec. Business, https://www.nytimes.com/1989/12/30/business/worrying-anew-over-oil-imports.html. ↑
The Associated Press, “OPEC Elects Not to Cut Oil Production Levels,” The New York Times, November 25, 1993, sec. Business, https://www.nytimes.com/1993/11/25/business/opec-elects-not-to-cut-oil-production-levels.html. ↑
“‘Juhayman: 40 Years on:’ Arab News’ Multimedia Project Tells Full Story of 1979 Makkah Siege,” Arab News, November 18, 2019, https://www.arabnews.com/node/1586076/media. ↑
“‘Juhayman.” ↑
According to one Stéphane Lacroix (2011), the Sahwa – Arabic word for the Awakening – stands for a social movement group that developed in the 1960s and 1970s by practicing a modern form of Islamic activism. Al Sahwa al Islammiya – Sahwa for short – managed to gain hold within the state’s own institutions and develop highly structed networks within this movement. ↑
“‘Juhayman.” ↑
“The First Gulf War - Short History - Department History - Office of the Historian,” accessed May 15, 2024, https://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/short-history/firstgulf. ↑
Reuters, “FUTURES MARKETS; Crude Oil Prices Fall Again, to 5-Year Low,” The New York Times, December 18, 1993, sec. Business, https://www.nytimes.com/1993/12/18/business/futures-markets-crude-oil-prices-fall-again-to-5-year-low.html. ↑
National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States, Thomas H. Kean, and Lee Hamilton, eds., The 9/11 Commission Report: Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States, Official government ed (Washington, DC: National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States : For sale by the Supt. of Docs., U.S. G.P.O, 2004). ↑
Saad Al Rashid et al., eds., ATLAL : The Journal of Saudi Arabian Archaeology 15, no. 1 (2000): Preface. ↑
“National Museum of Saudi Arabia,” Moriyama Teshima Architects, accessed May 21, 2024, https://mtarch.com/projects/saudi-arabia-national-museum/. ↑
“الموافقة على تنظيم الهيئة العليا للسياحة برئاسة الأمير سلطان اعتماد السياحة قطاعاً إنتاجياً, و الأماكن الطبيعية غير المملوكة مناطق سياحي,” Al Jazirah Newspaper, April 18, 2000, 10064 edition, https://www.al-jazirah.com/2000/20000418/fr1.htm. ↑
These laws would later change in 2019. “مرسوم ملكي رقم (م/134) وتاريخ 27-11-1440هـ [Royal Decree M/134],” [Umm Al Qura] صحيفة أم القرى, July 30, 2019, 4790 edition. ↑