I doubt they care much about the standard of living for the populace since they've really not done much of that with all the oil proceeds over the years. They're still a top heavy social system and they only distribute enough money to keep the GP from revolting and hanging the sheiks and their families. But they know the oil revenue is finite, and this is a gamble that they'll become a tourist mecca for a ton of people. But it's never going to replace the oil money, and a day of reckoning will come. Either the Fundamentalists will get them or the emerging more liberal segment of the population will. And then there's always a restive immigrant workers population, paid and treated like serfs, that could be a future disruptive source. All of these Arabian sheikdoms are on borrowed time. They walk a tightrope that is only bolstered by fear and selected largess.