Prince Sultan bin Salman bin Abdul Aziz, Secretary General of the Tourism Higher Authority, stressed that the tourism industry in the Kingdom faces great challenges, and noted that the Authority’s General Secretariat and its partners would achieve immense progress in the field of tourism during the forthcoming five years.
Inaugurating a workshop on the preparation of natural heritage sites for tourism, which was attended by Dr Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz bin Muammar, the Minister of Agriculture, and Dr Abdul Aziz bin Hamid Abu Zinadah, Secretary General of the National Commission for Wildlife Conservation and its Development (NCWCD), Prince Sultan pointed out that Saudi tourism has reached a phase of intensive development.
He called for an intensification of efforts and the mobilization of capabilities to achieve sustainable development in the field of tourism, affirming that the Authority will cooperate fully with partners in public and private sectors, via executive plans, staged programs and other mechanisms, in order to accomplish this goal.
In his speech, the Minister of Agriculture pointed out that the areas of natural forest in the Kingdom are estimated at 2.7 million hectares, and those of natural pastures at 170 million hectares, which contain 2,000 plant species.
He added that the Ministry has established many national parks at sites of natural forests in different regions of the Kingdom.
For his part, Dr Abu Zinadah praised the cooperation between NCWCD and the Tourism Authority, highlighting the Commission’s contribution to tourism development.
Source: SPA
