The General Commission For Tourism and Antiquities is working on a law including new classification standards for hotels and furnished apartments. The law is set to come into force next year. According to an official at the Commission the most salient feature of the new law is to make it incumbent upon investors to provide special facilities for the people with special needs, Asharq Al-Awsat said. Besides, the law seeks a strict abidance by the instructions of the Ministry of Interior on safety measures at all hotels and furnished apartments. Engineer Ahmad Al-Isa, Director General of Licenses and Quality, said the Commission is according due attention to the housing sector. He said new regulations will empower the Commission to issue operational permits to all tourist facilities in the Kingdom. That is why the Commission is giving most attention to the classification and monitoring of the performance of these facilities. “There will be no progress in the field without well-organized housing facilitates for the tourists,” he said. Al-Isa said the Commission has developed the classification standards in a way as to match the international five- star standards stressing that the application of the newly defined standards will upgrade the quality of the tourist housing sector. __
