Inaugural TOURISE Global Summit

Client: Saudi Arabia Ministry of Tourism / Saudi Tourism Authority

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

TOURISE is Saudi Arabia's new flagship global tourism platform, conceived as a multi-year, multi-city movement designed to redefine how the world comes together to shape the future of tourism. Its inaugural edition, delivered by Imagination in partnership with the Ministry of Tourism and the Saudi Tourism Authority, was staged across Riyadh from the 11th - 13th of November 2025.

The challenge was significant: the global events calendar is crowded with legacy summits carrying decades of institutional authority. TOURISE needed to cut through immediately, establishing itself as a credible, future-facing platform capable of convening the world's most senior leaders and delivering tangible, real-world impact from its very first edition.

Imagination's response was to reject the summit format entirely. Rather than asking global decision-makers to passively observe presentations about Saudi Arabia's tourism ambitions, every environment was designed to place delegates inside those ambitions - a destination-scale experience that demonstrated the Kingdom's world-class capability at every turn.

The result was a platform unlike anything the industry had seen. Across 72 hours, TOURISE convened 5,000+ delegates including 250 CEOs and government ministers from 100+ countries, generated $113 billion USD in highlighted investment portfolios, facilitated 40 MoUs and 46 major industry announcements, and delivered 1,012 structured business meetings.

Cultural icons including Sir Richard Branson and Cristiano Ronaldo attended alongside heads of state and global investors.

Crucially, TOURISE did not stop at Riyadh. Forty hours of live broadcast content and 19 international media partnerships extended its authority to a global audience, generating 400,000+ website visits.

For its inaugural edition to immediately secure a permanent place on the global calendar, with the 2027 edition already confirmed, speaks to the power of the model Imagination created.