NEOM, madness or genius

At the beginning, when you come up with a new idea, they'll first call you crazy. When the idea begins to take shape, they call you a visionary, and when it becomes successful, they call you a genius. NEOM is still somewhere between madness and vision. Something similar could have been said of Dubai and Abu Dhabi in their day, and today they are two established cities that have become, without a doubt, major international tourist and financial hubs. 

NEOM is a blend of the Greek word neos, meaning "new", and mustaqbal, an Arabic term referring to "future". It is the largest project to date to create a city-state from scratch between the waters of the Red Sea and the Saudi Arabian desert with a vision based on the needs of the future, with the potential to become one of the world's largest centers for research and development for sustainable solutions in a multitude of disciplines, funded by none other than one of the main characters in the most polluting industry on the planet, the kingdom of oil. Investing money from the sale of oil to fight climate change. Is it madness or genius? The Saudi green initiative is the country's commitment and vision to be carbon neutral by 2060. 
 

This is the vision of Crown Prince HRH Mohammed bin Salman. Unlike all his predecessors, the prince is the first domestically educated heir to the crown and is becoming the new reforming face of the Saudi Arabian kingdom. With 60% of the population under the age of 40 and eager for openness and social reforms, the country is undergoing change in a rapid and visible manner.

The Saudi Arabian government is also undergoing a new era of social and economic reform. Although no one in the West questions these reforms anymore, let's remember that in Spain, a woman needed a man's permission to travel alone and open a bank account until the late 1970s. Over the past few years, a series of changes have already been implemented, creating a reformist inertia that has come to stay.

Women can drive, they can dress as they want, open businesses, and divorce is legal, although still without any financial compensation for women. The first music concert with the world's most famous DJs, the Formula 1 championship in Jeddah, the opening of international restaurants in Riyadh, and the tourism development of Al Ula are all examples of the country's willingness to generate a wave of change.

During my trip, I had the opportunity to talk with families and public officials related to this wave of change. One of the most topical debates is the legalization of alcohol, socially seen today as a drug, and I was struck by the parallelism of arguments on either side, so similar to the debate on the legalization of marijuana in many European countries today. 

I had the opportunity to be invited, along with an international group of luxury tourism specialists, to do my bit in a few working sessions together with the local NEOM team.

NEOM is located in the province of Tabuk, where the intention is to create a new state within the country, with its own new legislation and revolutionary concept. Its goal is to be the city of the future, without cars, without fossil fuels, quasi-autonomous in the generation of its food resources, and to become the home of more than a million people coming from all over the world.

NEOM will consist of the "Octagon", the world's largest construction over the sea and industrial hub of the project, and "The Line", a 170 km long city built in a straight line between the coast of the Gulf of Aqaba and the mountain range with the 2,549 meter high and frequently snow-capped Jabal Al-Lawaz mountain, connected by a high-speed Hyperloop line and electric flying vehicles (eVTOL).