A consultant who worked on Saudi Arabia's says its centerpiece called The Line will be more of a resort than a functioning city. Chris Hables Gray, an author and consultant who researched science fiction design aesthetics for The Line in 2021, told Business Insider that the futuristic city was a "resort for 0.01% of the population.
" Although has "large amounts of money to spend, there is no chance that it is a real city," he said. Gray said Neom's promotional videos of The Line were meant to be "seductive" and showed "amazingly enticing visions of a future that will never be." A resort for 'really rich people' Neom officials say The Line will cater to both tourists and permanent residents.
The project is expected to house 300,000 people by 2030, according to a Bloomberg report earlier this year, a of 1.5 million residents. The Neom project also includes several luxury tourist destinations along the Gulf of Aqaba in a bid to "It was clearly always aimed at being a resort for really rich people," Gray said.
"Cities serve profoundly important functions culturally, economically, spiritually, and politically, and this planned city is serving none of them." He added that The Line's location is "off in the middle of nowhere," which makes it a good location for a resort but not one that will integrate with the local Indigenous culture. The Huwaitat tribe, which traditionally lives on lands earmarked for the megacity, were to make way for The Line.
One villager was reportedly killed f.