Saudi Gazette JEDDAH — The head of the National Center for Human Resource at the Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage said the sector will be able to provide 1,200,000 jobs in a move to fulfill the national vision. The jobs will be in different sectors including: transport, hotels, catering, restaurants among different activities linked to the tourism sector. He noted that they encourage investments in this sector, and said «there is a special fund for financing projects. The first is for small businesses which might be offered with two to thee million riyals. The second is big investments like hotels, and the funding in this case can be SR200 million.» Speaking on the sidelines of the Jeddah Human Resource Development Forum, he told Saudi Gazette that they are developing the sector in a way that will attract 30 million Umrah pilgrims a year. «We want these visitors to be exposed to places other than just the holy cities. They will be allowed to move around and go to places like Asir, Riyadh and Dammam based on a plan with their campaigns.» In this regard, he said, they are developing the historic sites in various locations in the kingdom. A budget of SR2.8 million has been allocated to finalize the first stage of this development. There are 17 creative handcraft centers in the kingdom and 18 heritage sites, 18 museums and six locations registered at the UNESCO. There is also a plan to develop Farasan Island by 2020. The budget allocated to this project is SR2.7 billion, 40% of which is devoted by the government and the rest by the private sector. The revenues in the sector are SR531 million. To create sustainability in the sector, Al-Nashmi said they are working on awareness campaigns with the ministry of education to make young generation familiar with jobs in the tourism sector and to encourage families to know more about the importance of the sector. In addition the authority is working on training Top managers in the tourism sector to allow them to revive the sector. Saud Al-Rashid, who was representing the Ministry of Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources, said they created 115 initiatives to meet the Saudi vision. Their budget for these initiatives will be SR80 billion, and SR290 billion will flow from the private sector. He noted that they are creating 170,000 job opportunities, 70% of which are in rural areas.
