IT is commonly said in our country that if you travel to an unknown island in the Antarctica you will definitely find a Saudi family there. The presence of the Saudis all over the world makes me doubt the authenticity of the official statistics about the Kingdom's population number. Where did these Saudis, whom you will find in every city, village, countryside, hotel, street, public park and resorts, come from? The latest statistics said about 4.5 million Saudi tourists travel outside every year spending more than $77 billion. However, since we find Saudis everywhere, this number becomes doubtful. They cannot just be 4.5 million while you find them everywhere. The spectacular widespread of the Saudis in every corner of the world will give you the impression that their number cannot be less than 10 million or more. The congestions inside their country itself makes us doubt the official statistics about the population number which is about 22 million excluding the expatriates. The Saudis are crowding Dubai, Doha, Manama and all the other GCC capital cities. They are the largest number of visitors to Egypt and the biggest spenders. They spend three times the other tourists in Egypt. The Saudis are found everywhere in Europe. You will not be surprised to hear Saudi dialects in sub-ways, restaurants, streets and all other places. Not a single city or a state in the US is void of Saudis. You will find them in the Turkish villages and towns with their tea and coffee thermos enjoying the natural beauty of the country. No doubt the Saudis are also filling the Southeast Asian countries and the Far East. There's no place that does not have various numbers of Saudis. The Saudis have become the source of income for a number of countries in the world. This has made all the countries of the world, without any exception, try to win them over. If we moved a little at the official political and tourist levels we would have ensured the Saudis with a number of facilities and made a number of gains for them. We will not be less than the citizens of the United Arab Emirates who have been exempted from the Schengen visas though they could never be compared in number to the Saudi tourists and the amount of money they spend on foreign tourism. It is not a secret that tourism, today, is an important source of income for many countries. These countries will suffer a great economic upheavals whenever their tourism suffers a setback due to security or political instability. It is only natural in this case to ask the countries of the world for a special treatment to the Saudi tourist who spends million of dollars on tourism. Sumati Ramanathan, regional general manager of the UK tourism agency in Asia Pacific and the Middle East, said the Saudis spent $580 million in Britain last year with a ratio of 13 percent compared to tourists from other countries. She said the Saudis were granted about 116,000 visit visas to Britain that is also an impressive number. Against all these big numbers why do not we ask for special facilities to the Saudi tourists? Is there anything wrong in opening these negotiations with the countries the Saudis visit most? Can't we discuss with these countries to give special favors to the Saudi tourists?
