Need to know
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Saudi Arabia – Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has revealed plans to build a new city to end the country’s reliance on its oil reserves. Deriving all its power from renewable sources, the futuristic city of Neom will be home to both humans and robots, including Saudi Arabia’s first robotic citizen Sophia.

All mundane and repetitive tasks will be automated to enable the city’s human population to undertake more skills-based projects. The £379bn ($500bn, €430bn) initiative will be entirely self-sufficient, using vertical farms and solar-powered greenhouses to grow crops. Look out for our forthcoming Saudi Arabia Market for more on innovations in the Middle East.

Tokyo – Tapping into the post-ownership economy, car manufacturer Toyota has opened a showroom concept where people rent rather than buy a vehicle. Drive to Go aims to create a relaxing environment with food and drink offerings, and its car rental prices start from £6.69 ($8.83, €7.59) an hour. While car rental services are nothing new, Toyota’s model goes beyond the service provided by car rental apps that connect people to nearby vehicles to offer a destination retail space in which people experience the products in a physical environment rather than through a digital app.

‘In the case of showcasing cars, and given this location where there are a lot of young people who aren’t quite ready to buy cars yet, we thought of creating a space that supports the kind of activities they enjoy,’ Atsushi Muroi, project architect at Archicept City, explained to The Drum.

US – The number of weather-related disasters is increasing, according to Munich Re, and low-cost food retailer Costco has moved to sell Nutristore’s emergency food kits on its website in response.

Starting from £756 ($999, €859) for a one-year supply of tinned food products such as rice, dried fruit and canned meat, Nutristore’s kits provide a person with around 1,200 calories per day, while its premium kits, which cost £4,543 ($6,000, €5,158), provide around 2,000 calories per day. In a dislocated world driven by fear and uncertainty, consumers are looking for ways to protect themselves against the effects of climate change.

By 2030, around one-third of the world’s population aged 15–29 will be Muslim, according to a report by MasterCard and Halaltrip, presenting a huge growth market for brands. At present, the most popular destinations for young Muslim tourists are Malaysia and Indonesia, followed by Japan, Thailand and Australia. For more, see Halal Travel in our Future Forecast 2017.