SAUDI ARABIA'S domestic tourism showed initial development during oil boom years and continued for a decade. Groups of people spent their vacation in the summer resort of Taif in 1970s and early 1980s. Taif thus became a meeting point for families. That generation of domestic tourists will be keeping good memories of those happy days. After mid-1980s the Kingdom witnessed an economic downturn as well as religious transformation. The number of Saudis going for Haj and Umrah increased. For many families doing an Umrah in Ramadan became an annual religious ritual. This change had a tremendous impact on real estate business in Makkah and Madinah with prices shooting up. It was followed by a period when people stopped visiting the country's summer resorts. A large number of wealthy and middle class families started spending their vacations in tourist destinations abroad. They used to hide their foreign vacation plan due to religious awakening, fatwas by prominent scholars and Friday sermons given by mosque imams against foreign tourism. After the media slightly opened up at the end of 1990s people's religious enthusiasm started dwindling. Foreign tourism became rampant among a large number of Saudi families including orthodox ones. They visited Gulf countries, Malaysia and Turkey. After that people started boasting about their foreign tours and wealthy families spent school vacation abroad. Financial conditions started putting pressure on families to stop foreign tourism. At the same time, domestic tourism did not reach the level sought by Saudi tourists. Modern technological advancement has made foreign travel easy as it helped them find out prices of tickets and hotels by just clicking on their cell phones to calculate their annual tourism budget. As Saudis have increasingly turned to domestic tourism, it is high time for authorities to make it more attractive to them. Saudi Arabia is capable of attracting foreign tourists and retrieving a considerable portion of the $25.1 billion the Saudis spent in foreign tourism annually. Many foreign tourist destinations including those in Europe still attract a large number of Saudis. Since 1990s GCC countries have been receiving a considerable number of Saudi tourists. Our tourism lacks clear vision and proper strategy. Saudi Arabia is replete with natural scenic and historical sites. Many foreign tourists are excited to visit the Kingdom to explore its attractions including antiquities. At the same time, the tourism sector faces many obstacles apart from religious and cultural taboos. The tourism industry requires a special culture. Our campaigns to woo tourists need not be focused on tourism and cultural festivals that would last for a few days. Construction projects may not help attract a large number of tourists. We need innovative solutions at cheaper rates. We should also focus on strong points that would attract more tourists to the Kingdom. We have the longest beaches on the Red Sea and Arabian Gulf but charges of chalets and rest houses have reached fabulous levels even in normal days. During seasons charges would reach unbelievably impossible levels. Charges of hotel rooms and furnished apartments are also unaffordable. People face difficulty in transport, especially due to overbooking on flights. I think we should make use of malls across the country to organize various attractive programs for tourists. We have seen people discussing on social media networks about high accommodation charges at the Kingdom's resorts as they believe it was due to commercial fraud, which could be tackled by the Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage. Charges of hotels and motels will depend on round-the-year utilization. If they are utilized only during a short period of the year then the charges would naturally go up. Investors would not be interested to put their money in hospitality projects if they could not make any profit. We have to differentiate between what is possible and impossible in tourism industry. It is not possible to transfer all the billions spent by citizens on foreign tourism to domestic tourism because tourists often search for new cultures and attractions. European tourists spend a lot on foreign tourism although their countries have all the attractions that impress foreign tourists. We have to admit that our society still does not look at domestic tourism with enthusiasm. They are not proud of the Kingdom's tourist attractions like people of other countries. There are reasons for people to look at tourism with contempt and we have to discuss this issue in detail. We can find many possible things to strengthen domestic tourism and woo foreign tourists and even Saudis if we put effective strategies, focusing on specific areas. Tourists will not go to places having limited options. We cannot hold tourism festivals and other related programs throughout the year. Authorities and investors should think of new ideas that would encourage Saudis as well as foreigners to visit the Kingdom's resorts. We should also construct impressive parks.
