Saudi Arabia’s Tahaluf has generated $17.6bn in economic impact over three years through its business-to-business events portfolio. This means that Tahaluf has generated more for Saudi Arabia’s GDP than the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar over a similar timeframe, according to chief executive Mike Champion.
Speaking at the Saudi Business and Investment Summit in Riyadh yesterday, Champion said the events company expects revenues to grow more than 30% year-on-year in 2025, taking annual turnover beyond $200m. The company has expanded from three staff to over 300 in three-and-a-half years.
“Tahaluf’s events will repeat, whereas World Cups come and go”
“By the end of 2025 we forecast Tahaluf will have made a total economic impact of $17.6bn to the kingdom’s GDP – this surpasses the reported $17bn economic impact of the FIFA World Cup in Qatar over a similar timeframe – the difference being that Tahaluf’s events will repeat annually, whereas World Cups come and go,” Champion said.
Tahaluf’s portfolio includes LEAP, which bills itself as the world’s most attended tech event, alongside Cityscape Global, Global Health Exhibition, Money20/20 Middle East, and Black Hat MEA. Champion co-founded LEAP.
The Riyadh-based company is a joint venture between London-listed Informa, the Saudi Federation for Cybersecurity, Programming and Drones, and the Events Investment Fund. Saudi event producer Sela is set to join the venture.
Executive vice-president Annabelle Mander, who moderated a session at yesterday’s summit, said strategic partnerships across government and industry had driven record growth in Saudi Arabia’s business events sector as part of the Vision 2030 economic diversification programme.
The summit brought together leaders from technology, culture, transport, energy and finance sectors to discuss business opportunities created by Saudi Arabia’s reform agenda.
