A group of experts in the tourism industry has lauded the program devised by the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities (SCTA) for the promotion and marketing of the Kingdom's tourist programs at the local, regional and global levels. They said the program is being carried out by the Commission and its partners in the public and private sectors pointing out that the program has been designed in a manner to develop the Kingdom's national tourism industry. They also stressed the importance of opening channels of cooperation with global tourist organizations as this will enable the SCTA and local investors to exchange experiences, which will enrich the industry in the Kingdom. Prince Sultan Bin Salman Bin Abdul Aziz, Secretary General of SCTA, has stressed that the Commission aims to make Saudi Arabia one of the most popular tourism destinations in the region. He said the tourism plan has details of the events, traditional art displays, folklore skits and sporting events that will be organized by local companies and tourism organizations in cooperation with SCTA in different parts of the Kingdom around the year to effectively promote domestic tourism. He said one of the major SCTA goals is to ensure the sustainable growth of tourism besides offering the best tourism products and services. Programs, he said, have been designed in a way to enable tourists, either citizens or foreigners, to discover the hidden treasures of Saudi Arabia such as the remains of the Hijaz Railway or mountains abundant with vegetation and wildlife. He said the program seeks to coordinate and unify the efforts of officials, investors, local communities, provincial authorities and municipalities. “It also seeks to support the efforts of the private sector in planning, developing and operating tourism projects in the most efficient way,” he said. Abdullah Salman Al-Jahni, deputy president for marketing and media at the SCTA, said the promotional tourist program serves to streamline the partnership between the private and public sectors. He pointed out that the SCTA has looked into the experiences of several countries in tourism, such as, Malaysia, Jordan and Egypt, and as a result, adopted the idea of establishing a Council for Tourism to work in tandem with SCTA. Both the bodies would establish a consortium including a group of commercial companies which benefit from tourism in the country such as transport companies, banks, telecommunications and travel companies. Dr. Salah Al-Bakheet, deputy president for investment, said the SCTA has worked out an integrated plan to upgrade the housing sector in the Kingdom which is the cornerstone for the development and promotion of the tourism industry in any country. Under this plan, he said, 50,000 rooms and residential units would be set up in the next three years. In order to stimulate the investment climate in the Kingdom the SCTA has started establishing tourist investment and services centers in the Kingdom's nine regions at a total cost of SR1.5 million with the objective of offering specialist consultations to investors in the tourism sector by providing them with information and facilitating licensing procedures for them. Esam Mustafa, member of the Saudi Economy Society, said the tourism industry has become one the most important industries in the world because of its high turnover, pointing out that several countries in the world depend on tourism for a major part of their national income. He said the Kingdom will extensively benefit from tourism in the diversification of its national income as it is expected to generate more than SR500 billion in the next ten years.
