SUSTAINABLE INFRASTRUCTURE PLANNING FOR REGIONAL TOURISM DEVELOPMENT IN SAUDI ARABIA: A FRAMEWORK FOR RESILIENT AND SAFE GIGA-PROJECT DELIVERY

The growth of tourism in Saudi Arabia is taking place via a number of destinations spread across the region, and the success of these destinations relies on infrastructure systems that are reliable, ecologically compatible, safe when in operation, and capable of adapting afterwards. However, research in the field of tourism, studies in regional planning, and the literature on risk in large-scale projects are frequently regarded as separate areas of discussion. This review brings those different areas together and presents a lifecycle framework for the safe and resilient delivery of giga-projects. A structured integrative review was carried out using 30 peer-reviewed studies published between 2020 and 2025, all of which had resolvable digital object identifiers. The evidence was analysed according to six areas: regional accessibility, energy and water security, blue-green and heritage systems, construction safety and risk, governance and community value, and adaptive destination operations. The synthesis demonstrates that infrastructure should be planned as part of a interconnected regional service ecosystem rather than as a collection of separate project assets. In dry and coastal areas, ecological thresholds, heat exposure, the availability of water, the reliability of renewable energy, evacuation capacity, and the continuity of the supply chain must all be considered as design constraints before any capital is committed.