STRICT RULES
Entry to the shop within the Diplomatic Quarter “is strictly restricted to non-Muslims”, based on the doc seen by AFP.
“No individuals below the age of 21 are allowed inside the shop” and “correct apparel is required”, it says.
Those that register with the app are unable to ship family, drivers, assistants or colleagues of their place, it says.
Use of cell phones is prohibited within the retailer.
Beneath the quota system, these authorised to entry the shop will have the ability to buy 240 “factors” of alcohol per 30 days. A litre of spirits is value six factors, a litre of wine is value three factors and a litre of beer is value one level.
The Saudi authorities assertion indicated that not a lot would change instantly for the overwhelming majority of Saudi Arabia’s 32 million individuals, who’ve few methods to imbibe except they’re prepared to journey overseas.
Past attending receptions within the Diplomatic Quarter, they will make selfmade wine or flip to the black market, the place bottles of whiskey can go for a whole bunch of {dollars} forward of holidays like New 12 months’s Eve.
REGIONAL RIVALRY
Imaginative and prescient 2030 seeks to remodel the world’s greatest crude exporter right into a enterprise, tourism and sports activities hub, laying the groundwork for a post-oil economic system.
Wednesday’s information got here as Saudi Arabia more and more competes with its neighbours, particularly Dubai within the United Arab Emirates, for international funding and tourism {dollars}.
This month, for instance, authorities carried out a rule requiring multinational companies to arrange regional headquarters in Saudi Arabia or lose out on authorities contracts.
Alcohol is out there in myriad lodges, eating places and bars in Dubai. In neighbouring Qatar, alcohol is served in licensed lodges and eating places to non-Muslims over 21 years previous.
Final yr, Saudi Arabia was granted hosting rights for Expo 2030 and the World Cup in 2034, additional fuelling hypothesis that the alcohol ban may be lifted, or a minimum of weakened with carve-outs in locations like NEOM, a deliberate US$500 billion futuristic megacity.
However on condition that alcohol is forbidden in Islam, the problem stays deeply delicate within the nation that’s house to the faith’s holiest websites within the cities of Mecca and Medina.
Beneath Saudi regulation, penalties for consumption or possession of alcohol can embrace fines, jail time, public flogging and deportation for unauthorised foreigners.
Saudi officers had till Wednesday dismissed options of any main coverage change.
“The brief reply is, we’re going to proceed with our present legal guidelines,” deputy tourism minister Princess Haifa Al Saud mentioned when requested straight concerning the problem on the World Financial Discussion board in Davos in 2022.