Abrar Alhomaid
The Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 is described as the blueprint of development for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. In this national plan, tourism plays a vital part for moving from an oil-based economy to a knowledge-based economy. However, the plan still remains underinvestigated for sustainability tourism practice, and particularly for marketing aspects of sustaining growth within this sector, given the complexity of cultural aspects between the country and its targeted western tourists. This investigation sought to determine to what extent KSA can use the principles of sustainable marketing to develop its tourism sector as it is presented in the Vision 2030 project. A qualitative methodology was employed to investigate these aspects. This study concludes that KSA has a high authenticity factor that sustains country branding and that integrates with notions of sustainable practice. Moreover, most of cultural clash concerns cited in the literature seem to form part of this authenticity.