AT Dubai's recent Travel and Tourism Exhibition Saudi Arabia had a large and prominent display. I won't address here the nature of the display itself as that's a subjective topic, instead I just want to ask what the point is in a Saudi presence at global exhibitions like these given the difficulties involved in obtaining a tourist visa to actually get into the country in the first place. In that respect, we are akin to a shop replete with goods, a shop for which we spend significantly on advertising but which greets the willing customer with locked doors, or doors only open to certain nationalities, or doors whose conditions for entry lead to the customer immediately going elsewhere. I won't extend the comparison between a shop and such a vast country like Saudi Arabia, but the economic equation is the same. Tourism provides a significant source of income for every country in the world today, however wealthy or poor, and its revenues provide greater profits than mining and industry. Spain is a wealthy industrial country, yet its income from tourism which brings in over 50 million tourists every year has made it among the wealthiest in Europe. Germany is moving in the same direction, as is Britain, Japan, and even the United States of America despite its strict tourist visa requirements which, all the same, are certainly not as strict as ours. If we are all in agreement that Saudi Arabia is opening up in a great and genuine fashion, then this openness must not be restricted to us traveling abroad to discover the outside world and all its cultures, but must also open up for that outside world to visit us and discover us. And I emphasize the words “discover us”, because Saudi Arabia, despite its international status, remains an unknown and obscure world to everyone else. Rarely, extremely rarely, am I not asked with keen interest about Saudi Arabia and life in Saudi Arabia, even by people from countries right next to us, let alone those far off. This country is not merely wealthy in oil and minerals and trade in its various forms, but also in natural and cultural features on which the door is closed. Our cultural diversity is a beautiful thing, our mountains and plains contain marvels waiting to be discovered, and above and beyond what they contribute in terms of our opening up to the world and gaining from this cultural communication they can also bring in copious funds for a new and extensive diversity in sources of income. I'm aware that there are certain perils in throwing wide open the doors of tourism, but I'm not suggesting that it be done recklessly, but instead gradually. The tourist is not the bogeyman or a criminal or beggar, but a cultured and well-to-do person who wishes to discover the new worlds and diverse cultures which this country offers, and I believe it when I say that this country can offer them more than any other Arab country.
