Whenever I think of countries like Egypt and Dubai whose budgets depend heavily on tourism revenues, I wonder why Saudi Arabia does not follow their example, especially when we have a stronger private sector than Egypt and more enchanting natural scenery than Dubai. We have cities with salubrious climate even in summer. Cities in the southwestern parts of the Kingdom are located more than 1,000 meters above the sea level. The country also has several virgin islands that investors have not yet exploited for tourism purposes. Many of our businessmen invest in neighboring Gulf countries. Let me ask the reader: If you were a businessman would you invest in your country or in a neighboring tourist resort? The obvious answer would be your country. As a result of the despicable bureaucratic obstacles in the Kingdom, Saudi businessmen and investors run away with their money to other countries to make use of the facilities and incentives they offer. The nation is the first loser because of this debacle. Saudi Arabia is replete with tourism potentials. The country has about 1,300 islands, 89 percent of them in the Red Sea. Some of these islands are huge, having areas similar to the big cities. There are many virgin lands and the Kingdom has no need to fill the sea to develop tourist resorts like the Palm Island in Dubai. What we need today is a simplified law to boost investment in the tourism sector. It is a shame that with all these islands we have failed to develop attractive tourist resorts, while other countries create artificial islands to lure visitors. I have written several times that if we want to make quick progress and bring about dramatic economic growth within a short period we need to enact laws for all sectors, regularly upgrade them, strictly implement them and provide attractive facilities to Saudi and foreign investors. If we take one year to complete the procedures for an investor while others take just one week, the Kingdom would find it difficult to convince Saudi and foreign businessmen to invest in the country as they know the value of time in promoting business. Consequently, our islands will remain unexploited. I would neither blame the Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage for not marketing these islands properly among the various business sectors nor the academics for preparing school textbooks that inform only about the Farasan, ignoring more than 1,000 other islands in the country. I also don't want to blame the media organizations that focus only on the annual tourism festivals in summer without informing the public and investors about the marvelous islands and other attractive locations for tourism investment. But I will blame the authorities for not enacting laws to encourage investment in the tourism sector by facilitating procedures in order for tourism to flourish in a natural way. I hope the SCTH would set out the necessary laws to open this secret treasure, which would definitely contribute immensely to the Kingdom's diversification drive, reducing its dependence on oil.
