Interview with Jerry Inzerillo. Group CEO, Diriyah Gate Development Authority

25 Mar Interview with Jerry Inzerillo. Group CEO, Diriyah Gate Development Authority

Diriyah is undergoing a remarkable transformation under your visionary leadership of the Diriyah Gate Development Authority. Could you provide an overview of the current state of this unique urban development project and its significance in the broader context of Saudi Arabia’s cultural and historical landscape?

Diriyah is special and unique to itself because it is the birthplace of the Kingdom, the birthplace of the Arabian Peninsula, and the ancestral home of Al Saud. By virtue of that fact, even with us now having, for the first time in Vision 2030, a comprehensive tourism strategy, the Kingdom never had a tourism strategy. Now, it has, since 2019. Strategy is very important because tourism is one of the principal industries to diversify the economy.

Saudi Arabia is a big country – it is five times the size of California – so if achieve 100 million visitors, there is a lot to do here. The Egyptians are very famous for the Red Sea, for Sharm El Sheikh. If you say Red Sea, everybody will tell you it is Egypt, because they have done a very good job, but they control only 21% of the Red Sea. Saudi Arabia has double that, but you could not go because we were not open to tourism. Now you can, and we have already started opening resorts there. If someone thinks of sand and sea, they have got something great. If someone wants to go to the largest desert in the world, that is Saudi Arabia – the Empty Quarter.

On culture and heritage, this is a 300-year culture. It is not a new country. It began in Diriyah. The ruling family, who have been running it for 300 years, began in Diriyah. It has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2010, and now, it is the center of culture and heritage. It is the principal source of Saudi identity and Saudi national pride. The Eiffel Tower is the symbol of France, the Colosseum is the symbol of the Italians, and the Acropolis is the symbol of Greece. Diriyah’s UNESCO site is the symbol of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. That is why Diriyah is very important.

To start things off, we are the birthplace of the Kingdom, the home of Al Saud, the source of national identity, the source of national pride, and the iconic emblem of the entire Kingdom. We are building a 140 million square meter development with investment of $63 billion. A masterplan that will house 100,000 people to work, to live, to recreate. 42 new hotels, and 30,000 residences, all in the mud typology, that will create the most livable walkable pedestrian cultural city in the world.

As the inaugural CEO and driving force behind the Diriyah Gate Development since its establishment in 2018, you have played an instrumental role in its evolution and shaping its trajectory. Could you delve into the key highlights that have shaped the project’s development, milestones reached, and latest status and share your insights on how it will impact Saudi’s booming tourism industry.

I have been very lucky because I have spent several decades in tourism. I have worked in every area of the world and a personal passion, which is the preservation of culture and identity, what makes countries uniquely different. Saudi Arabia is a very rich country in culture and heritage. When we got together, the Crown Prince and I, in early 2018, we said to ourselves that we wanted to use the UNESCO site of Diriyah, and we wanted to make it one of the great gathering places in the world.

But when people come, what will they find? The initial vision was about 400,000 square meters, but I was a little concerned as I thought it would behave like a big park, like Central Park in New York or Hyde Park in London. I thought it lacked 24-hour-a-day energy, 7-days-a-week urban energy. The Crown Prince agreed, so we added to the master plan to include, not just hotels, restaurants, and retail, but housing and universities. You would have infrastructure as a critical mass. Riyadh’s going to grow from eight million to 15 million people.

If you look at Los Angeles, a big metroplex, people know Beverly Hills, but Beverly Hills is a city in a city. Diriyah is a city in the city. It is just the work of a cultural city. That is why our look will also be different because it is centered on mud architecture. It has never been done anywhere in the world. The mud bricks of Diriyah are big; they are not Roman or Greek bricks. We are making 185 million of those mud bricks so all the buildings will look like they did 300 years ago. It is beautiful. We have restored the 300-year-old city, which is built out of mud. However, in 2022 we also opened some of the new assets last year that look like the old city. They are new, but they are made of authentic materials.

We are going to create a walkable cultural city. But the astounding part is that, below the city, underground, we build a smart new city: water, fiber optics, traffic, and 40,000 parking spots. That is a very smart infrastructure below so people could have a very walkable, beautiful city above, like Florence or Siena.

Our milestones are that the Crown Prince and I sat down in early 2018, we took his vision, and we conceptualized the vision, we master planned the vision, we acquired the land, we did demolition, we put several billion dollars of infrastructure, and opened assets, all within five years. In most places around the world, it takes five years just to do the master plan. What is unique about our giga project, as the Crown Prince calls it, is that for big urban developments, you generally must wait three to five years for this and three to five years for that, because a lot of buildings are complicated, but as a Vision 2030 project, we must be finished by 2030, albeit guests do not have to wait until then, because we will announce new assets every year. Every first week of December, all the way up to 2030, we will open assets so the guests can see them all over the world.

Riyadh was recently awarded the 2030 World Expo in a move that will transform the city, but also create some pressure because we must be finished by then. We have had substantial milestones due to the UNESCO site, with more than a million people visiting. The Crown Prince has a non-profit charity, Misk, for the enhancement and empowerment of youth for a better future, and we did a setup for Misk.

This is one of the only countries in the world now where the government is working harder than the private sector. Normally the private sector works harder because it is more entrepreneurial; but not here. Here, the government, with the Crown Prince, is working 80-hour weeks. There is a work ethic and an urgency of pace. We tease each other and, affectionately, what we say is that in the Kingdom, you have the money, you have the vision, but life is not perfect because the one thing you do not have is sleep and time, because you work around the clock.

How does the Diriyah Gate Development Authority balance modern development goals with the need to preserve and integrate the rich cultural and historical aspects of the region?

There is something that is misunderstood. Some people think that the preservation of cultural heritage conflicts with the modernity of technology. That is a fair conflict because when people have done planning around the world, they have, in fact, compromised their culture for modernity, but not here because there are two big differences. Culture and heritage preservation lead the discussion. In other words, you cannot mess with that. You have to find a way to co-exist the two.

The second thing is we believe in the modernity of technology, but not where it would compromise culture. We are going to build the buildings like they looked, but you still need technology. We are not going to let the guests see it, it will be underground. We have 40,000 parking spots because we are going to have millions of people visiting. Yet, all our rail, all our metro stations, and all our parking are underground in a very controlled, environmentally sustainable way. And when you walk up into the old city, it looks and feels like it did 300 years ago. It got that way because we said we must present this kind of atmosphere.

Saudi Arabia is about stories, we are going to tell 100 stories. Would it not be entertaining if we could enact those stories and act them out on the streets like a several kilometer-long theater? To do that, to allow people to have that interaction, you have to have all the modernity underground. We have a very strict culture and heritage committee, and this is something that I did. While I am the Group CEO, I took the authority away from myself on anything to do with historic palm trees, planting, and mud, and said to a very strict cultural inheritance committee, if you see me doing something that conflicts with how we preserve our culture, I have to get your approval first. I did this because I trusted them, not more than myself, but equally, that they would tell me to be careful about that, and that the Crown Prince is very strict on culture and preservation.

We did not want our work to come across as a theme park, it is not Disney. I went to school in Las Vegas, it is a very fun place, but Las Vegas is a fun replica; it is not authentic. You can create that building in Las Vegas. But it is not the same, it does not have the same heart. When people come to Diriyah now, the one thing we get from all the tours, even the Heads of State, is that this place is very emotional because they can feel that it is real, and that is because we did all the new buildings the right way. But if you want to reserve a place for your car, or reserve a restaurant, if you want to go here and there, all the technology will support that, although it does not interfere with the preservation of cultural rights.

The other thing we did is that we set up a foundation for all the software and all the programming of who we are, and how we demonstrate that to people. We will have nine museums that will talk about the House of Al Saud – the largest museum ever created for one family – the Arabian Peninsula, the history of Saudi dance, and Saudi costuming. We have academies that we have set up for cultural preservation. We see a harmony between cultural heritage and the modernity of technology. They are not in conflict with each other.

Having said that, we have another giga project in the Kingdom giant called Neom. It is completely different. Neom is what will life look like, what will the needs of life be in 2040-2050, and how we want to live in 2040-2050 because it is a new city. The Crown Prince has hired the foremost experts around the world, on all technologies and all arts, to say what would the quality of life be. But in Diriyah, we must preserve who we are. Neom is the bole of the tree, while we are the roots. We will stay true to who we are and celebrate our cultural identity, but in a modern way. We are capturing and circulating water, using new technology that uses a tenth of standard street lighting, and we can reduce carbon emissions because it gives a better quality of life. That is how we’re balancing that.

We have the largest environmental sustainability certification at Diriyah. We have already completed more than 100 million man-hours of construction work without a principal accident. I have happy staff, and a safe and healthy work environment, with the highest level of sustainability and environmental protection in the world.

Recognizing Diriyah Gate’s uniqueness, as well as your knowledge of the US market, how do you plan to position and promote the new development to the American audience? Additionally, could you touch upon any specific opportunities for American businesses to engage in this transformative project, aligning with its distinctive vision and goal?

There are a few nuances to it. Fortunately, the relationship between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the US is a deep, very positive relationship historically, going back 100 years. You will occasionally have some disagreements on this or that. But there is a very strong relationship between the two countries. That is important; they are friends and allies.

Number two is that the greatness of America has thousands of companies in all genres that demonstrate global excellence. We currently have contracts with over 100 American companies in design, architecture, engineering, entertainment, technology, food and beverage, hotels, and retail. We have over 100 contracts with American brands and companies. American expertise has always been welcomed in the Kingdom. Aramco, the most profitable company in the world, is the Arab American Oil Company. There is a very good relationship.

All our cities will witness a lot of growth over the next 10 years. A lot of the excellent American businesses will have a big upside here because we need that expertise, especially in training. Now, when it comes to the American market, the Saudi Tourism Authority, on whose board I serve, sees America as a principal market because Americans love to travel. Post-COVID, we are seeing some behavioral changes and people want more authenticity as well as to be outdoors more.

Because Diriyah is at least a 300-year culture, people are going to come and say where did the Arabian Peninsula begin, where did Saudi Arabia begin? Well, it began in Diriyah. We are already seeing a positive trend as whenever Americans come now, even if here on business, they spend at least a day at Diriyah. We are opening new routes and have signed dozens of contracts with international carriers. America is very important. It is very easy to come and get an electronic visa from America.

We are not politically saying to anybody who comes you can do this, or you cannot do that. We are saying all are welcome, come see for yourself, there is a lot to do here. The Kingdom was not open to tourism until September 2019. nobody knew what Saudi Arabia was. Everybody says Saudi Arabia has wells, deserts, camels, and Arabs. What they do not know is that it snows in the north, what they do not know is that we have big, lush valleys like Switzerland. We control 42% of the Red Sea. Now when people come because of social media, you get people taking pictures. People ask if that is Saudi Arabia. Also, they did not know how nice the Saudi people are. They are very warm, meaning people receive a good welcome when they visit.

We think America is going to be a very big market. We are investing a lot of money in Saudi American tourism, tour operators, destination management organizations, and travel agents. We have had them all here and are very bullish on American visits. The message to America is that we are open and welcoming, come see for yourself.

We get bizarre comments on Saudi, and we need to convince people and see why they feel like that. It is not their fault; it is our problem. We must work more and communicate things. That is why tourism is very powerful. When they leave, they go home and say they got that wrong and it is completely different from what they thought. But we have to work more on that and communicate to different media and to different communication channels to correct that.

You are a distinguished personality in the hospitality industry and stand proudly at the helm of one of the world’s most exciting urban development projects, especially because it is where history converges with Saudi’s bold new world. Could you shed light on your top priorities and strategic objectives for the short and mid-terms? Moreover, considering your rich background, how does your expertise influence your distinctive approach to this transformative project?

If one goes way up, my promise to the King and the Crown Prince, after being blessed with a long career, was that I would make Diriyah, not only known, but one of the great gathering places of the world, for people to gather and be festive, be inclusive, and to enjoy themselves. All cultures, all religions, and all nationalities. Come and visit us and see the authentic birthplace of a very rich culture and heritage! This is my mandate.

However, I put additional pressure on myself, because I want to make sure that the community that we serve, Diriyah, benefits from these master plans instead of sacrificing from them. If we are building this and it is dusty and noisy for a few years, and it is interruptive, with road closures and land acquisitions, I want to be able to ask my community and neighbors if their life is better now, or do they think their life was better before I came? If they say yes, I thank them and tell them to watch the next years. If they say it is not better, I must make that up to them, I have to show them what the Crown Prince’s Vision is.

So, make it a great gathering place, and enrich and benefit the community to which we serve. I also want to empower the next generation of Saudi leaders. In Vision 2030, we must be finished. We are going to host the World Expo 2030 and then the 2034 World Cup. There is a lot to look forward to.

What would be your final message to the audience of USA Today?

Please come and visit us! All are welcome! There is only one Diriyah. When you go and see Neom, the Red Sea, or Jeddah, they are going to say they are the best, and you will say of course you are the best. But there is only one Diriyah!