Fahad Toonsi Chairs the Red Sea Regulator as Hotels Open

A royal order on August 17, 2025 named Dr. Fahad Toonsi, a Royal Court adviser, chairman of the Saudi Red Sea Authority. He replaced Tourism Minister Ahmed Al-Khateeb, who had chaired the board since the authority was created in November 2021.

Al-Khateeb still runs national tourism and still sits on that board. He no longer holds the gavel over the coast. On October 1, 2026 the same authority handed Red Sea Global operating licenses for 278 yacht berths at AMAALA and Shura Island. That paperwork is the job Toonsi was hired to do.

The Tourism Minister No Longer Chairs the Coast

The Saudi Press Agency recorded royal approval on August 17 for Toonsi, an adviser at the Royal Court with ministerial rank, to chair the authority’s board. The board thanked Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, calling the move an extension of support for a coastal tourism economy and for the Kingdom’s place on the world map.

صدور الموافقة السَّامية على تعيين الدكتور فهد تونسي رئيسًا لمجلس إدارة الهيئة السعودية للبحر الأحمر. https://t.co/9fHQ3GTkKh#واس pic.twitter.com/o06oZuVojb

— واس الأخبار الملكية (@spagov) August 17, 2025

SRSA is not the company that builds the hotels. It is the independent government body that writes the rules for boats, beaches, marinas and cruises on Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea, then issues the licenses that let those activities run. From the Council of Ministers decision that created it on November 30, 2021, the tourism minister had also been its chairman. That double hat lasted until the August order.

The split does not push Al-Khateeb out of coastal policy. He remains a member of the board, listed there as minister of tourism, while Toonsi sits at the top. Princess Haifa Al Saud, the vice minister of tourism, is on the same board. So is Fahad Hamidaddin, chief executive of the Saudi Tourism Authority. The ministry still has a voice. It no longer has the chair.

Fahad Toonsi Came From Performance Measurement Work

Toonsi is not a hotelier. He has been a Royal Court adviser since December 2018, after earlier work from 2013 advising committees around the crown prince on governance. In 2020 he served as secretary-general of the Saudi secretariat for the Group of 20. On May 17, 2022 a Council of Ministers decision named him chairman of the National Center for Performance Measurement of Public Agencies, known as Adaa, the body that tracks whether government agencies hit Vision 2030 targets.

He trained as an engineer, taking a bachelor’s degree in production engineering and mechanical systems design from King Abdulaziz University in 2001, then a doctorate in financial economics and corporate governance from King’s College London in 2008. Before the Court posts he worked on corporate governance projects for banks and firms in Saudi Arabia and across the Gulf.

He was already inside the west-coast giga-projects. A 2020 official biography described him as secretary-general of the boards for Public Investment Fund schemes including NEOM, Qiddiya, AMAALA and the Red Sea Project. Appointment notices also recorded that he had served as secretary-general of the Red Sea Authority itself. A Red Sea Global notice from October 2023 named him as a board member and secretary-general of that developer when a water aerodrome license was handed over on Ummahat Island.

Toonsi expressed his gratitude to Minister of Tourism Ahmed Al-Khateeb for the efforts made while he was chairing the SRSA Board of Directors during the past period and the tangible achievements that contributed to achieving the goals of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030.

Dr. Fahad Toonsi, Chairman, Saudi Red Sea Authority, Saudi Press Agency statement, August 17, 2025

That thank-you is the polite form of a handover. The substance of the choice is a Court operator who already knew the projects, the boards and the scorecards, taking the regulator as those projects stopped being drawings.

What the Saudi Red Sea Authority Licenses

Saudipedia, the state encyclopedia, describes SRSA as the body that regulates navigational and marine tourism inside the Kingdom’s Red Sea geographic scope. Its tasks include policy, licenses and permits, routes, infrastructure needs, marine environmental protection, investment incentives, a single electronic platform for users, and training of Saudi staff. The Council of Ministers approved its organizational regulation on October 31, 2023.

By then the board had already issued seven regulations for marine tourism. Those rules are the daily work of the chair Toonsi inherited, because they decide who may bring a yacht, run a cruise, design a marina or put a tour boat on the water.

SEVEN RULES FOR A LIVE COAST

• Visiting yachts: Entry and exit of private yachts that come into the Saudi Red Sea geographic scope.
• Marine tour operators: Terms and procedures for firms that run marine tours.
• Maritime tourism agents: Agents who serve craft so those craft can operate legally.
• Cruise ships: Operator duties, plus security, safety, environment and health rules for cruises.
• Large yacht chartering: A permit path that lets foreign-flagged large yachts charter in the scope.
• Watercraft classes: How marine tourism craft are classified so later rules can attach to each class.
• Marina design and operations: How tourist marinas are designed and how operators earn an operating license, including health, safety and environmental tests.

On December 31, 2025 the authority added the Kingdom’s first published requirements for beach operators. A license file now needs a valid commercial register, an environmental operating permit, a marine spatial plan, a beach safety plan and a capacity assessment. Operators must separate swim zones from other water sports, post signs, and put lifeguards on the sand. That is not a tourism campaign. It is a permit mill for a shoreline that already has guests.

Shura Island Opened Before the Marina Paperwork

Red Sea Global, the Public Investment Fund developer behind The Red Sea and AMAALA, started taking guests in 2023 at Six Senses Southern Dunes. In 2024 it opened The St. Regis Red Sea Resort and Nujuma, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve, plus Turtle Bay Hotel for staff and business visitors, then its own Shebara and Desert Rock. In 2025 Shura Island opened with its first three resorts and the Shura Links golf course. Early 2026 brought Adrena, an adventure district. AMAALA, the wellness destination farther north, took its first guests in 2026.

The current destination page for The Red Sea lists 18 hotels with around 3,000 keys, more than 1,000 homes on Laheq and Shura, 70 flights a week into Red Sea International Airport, and 760,000 solar panels. Development is limited to less than 1 percent of the land. The stated conservation aim is a 30 percent net gain by 2040.

THE RED SEA DESTINATION ON THE BOOKS

• Land and water: 28,000 square kilometers between Umluj and Al Wajh, including more than 90 islands.
• Visitor cap: Red Sea Global says visitor numbers are capped at 1 million a year to protect biodiversity.
• Current traffic: The same page puts present volume at 350,000-plus visitors a year, a running figure under that cap.
• Power: The destination is described as running on off-grid renewable energy, with battery storage for night use.

Those figures belong to the developer. SRSA’s figures are licenses. The two sets only meet when a marina, a beach or a charter firm wants to operate. By the time Toonsi had been in the chair for a little over a year, that meeting was no longer theoretical.

SRSA Licensed 278 Yacht Berths in October

Red Sea Global said on September 14, 2026 that AMAALA Yacht Club had begun operations inside AMAALA Marina Village, taking founding members and visiting yachts. On September 23 it launched Yachting Network, a single operator for its marina and yacht-club assets. From winter 2026, it said, private and charter yachts would move along an AMAALA-Shura corridor under one berthing contract.

AMAALA Marina has 119 berths. Shura Island Marina has 159 berths. Together they make 278 berths, and both sites are built for yachts up to 120 meters. Shura is described as the Kingdom’s largest island marina. Further marinas and anchorages are slated to join in 2027.

The aim is to make cruising between destinations as seamless as possible, while delivering the level of service expected.

John Pagano, Group Chief Executive, Red Sea Global, Yachting Network announcement, September 23, 2026

The regulator’s stamp came after those openings. On October 1, 2026 the Saudi Press Agency said SRSA had presented Red Sea Global with operating licenses for both marinas. Mohammed Bukhari, the authority’s vice president for coastal tourism operations, handed the papers in Riyadh. The licenses sit under the marina design and operations regulation, the same code that sets health, safety and environmental duties for operators.

Saudi Red Sea Authority Presents Red Sea Global with Operating Licenses for AMAALA Marina and Shura Marina.https://t.co/Ht56nV5QVB#SPAGOV pic.twitter.com/0SjESj3zls

— SPAENG (@Spa_Eng) October 1, 2026

THE TOONSI CHAIR, DATE BY DATE

1. August 17, 2025: Royal approval names Toonsi chairman of the Saudi Red Sea Authority, succeeding Al-Khateeb.
2. November 2025: Toonsi visits Jeddah with Mayor Saleh Al-Turki and launches 15 new marine patrol boats for coastal monitoring.
3. December 31, 2025: SRSA publishes the Kingdom’s first beach-operator requirements, including lifeguards and capacity limits.
4. February 19, 2026: SRSA hosts a health, safety and environment workshop for marina operators.
5. June 23, 2026: SRSA issues a yacht chartering license to 1760 Limited Company.
6. October 1, 2026: SRSA grants Red Sea Global operating licenses for AMAALA Marina and Shura Marina, 278 berths.

The sequence is the argument. The first year in the chair was not a new slogan for west-coast tourism. It was boats, beach rules, an HSE classroom, a charter license, then the two big marina files.

Red Sea Global Keeps a Seat on the Board

The same board that issued those licenses still includes the developer that received them. The published list names Giovanni Antonio Pagano, group chief executive of Red Sea Global, as a member. John Pagano is the name on the company’s own statements. Ayman Almudaifer, chief executive of NEOM, sits there too. Saad Alkroud represents local real estate investments at the Public Investment Fund.

That mix was baked in at founding. The 2021 design put the tourism, sports and culture ministers in the room with ports, border guard, environment, Jeddah’s mayor, and the chiefs of NEOM and the Red Sea developer. Toonsi’s appointment changed who holds the chair. It did not take the developer off the board that regulates the developer.

WHO SITS ON THE RED SEA AUTHORITY BOARD

Al-Khateeb’s other chairs, including the Saudi Tourism Authority and the Tourism Development Fund, are untouched by the August order. He has been minister of tourism since February 2020. The coastal regulator is the piece that moved.

Patrol Boats in Jeddah Came First

Before the yacht corridor, Toonsi was on a Jeddah dock. In November 2025 the authority’s official account said he launched new marine vessels with Mayor Al-Turki, who also sits on the SRSA board, to tighten compliance and coastal monitoring in the Makkah region. A tourism newsroom account put the new fleet at 15 boats and said the visit included a cooperation agreement and a look at the municipality’s control room. Captain Thamer Nahhas, the municipality’s coastal protection undersecretary, tied the boats to environmental and marine patrols for residents and visitors.

That outing is easy to skip in a royal-order brief. It is the clearer picture of the chair. Jeddah’s public beaches and small craft are the volume business on this coast. The 278 superyacht berths are the prestige file. Both need the same signature.

People still described Al-Khateeb as SRSA chairman months after the order, because that was how the authority had always been introduced. The board list now says otherwise. The licenses dated October 1, 2026 are signed in the new name.

Frequently Asked Questions

When Was the Saudi Red Sea Authority Established?

The Council of Ministers created it on November 30, 2021 as an independent authority for navigational and marine tourism in the Saudi Red Sea geographic scope, after an earlier Red Sea Tourism Authority from 2020 was renamed and widened. Its full organizational regulation was approved on October 31, 2023, almost two years after the founding decision.

How Is SRSA Different From Red Sea Global?

SRSA is the government regulator that issues licenses and writes the codes. Red Sea Global is the Public Investment Fund developer that builds and runs The Red Sea, AMAALA and Thuwal Private Retreat, a third site that opened in 2024. The two share a board table. They do not share a legal job.

What Did Fahad Toonsi Study?

He took a bachelor’s degree in production engineering and mechanical systems design from King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah in 2001 and a doctorate in financial economics, with a corporate-governance focus, from King’s College London in 2008. He later published work on corporate governance in the Middle East and North Africa, including a 2012 journal article on whether the region has its own governance model.

Can a Visiting Private Yacht Enter the Saudi Red Sea?

Yes, under the Visiting Private Yacht Regulation, which covers entry and exit inside the geographic scope. A separate Large Yacht Chartering Regulation lets foreign-flagged large yachts charter through a permit. A technical leisure-tourism license for a Saudi yacht is priced in the authority’s own table at 4,000 riyals for a six-month term.