Neom: can Saudi Arabia sell its futuristic city to Western visitors?

Social media influencers' attempts to promote life in Saudi Arabia's purpose-built desert city have had a mixed reception

Neom
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman greets a delegation from Oman at Neom in 2021
(Image credit: Alamy / Balkis Press)

Saudi Arabia has turned to social media to boost the image of its ambitious desert megacity Neom – but the reception so far suggests the PR blitz is failing to convince.

The kingdom's crown prince has envisioned the $1.5 trillion development on the Red Sea coast as "a showpiece that will transform his country's economy and serve as a testbed for technologies that could revolutionise daily life", said Bloomberg.

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 Sorcha Bradley is a writer at The Week and a regular on “The Week Unwrapped” podcast. She worked at The Week magazine for a year and a half before taking up her current role with the digital team, where she mostly covers UK current affairs and politics. Before joining The Week, Sorcha worked at slow-news start-up Tortoise Media. She has also written for Sky News, The Sunday Times, the London Evening Standard and Grazia magazine, among other publications. She has a master’s in newspaper journalism from City, University of London, where she specialised in political journalism.