New tourism projects worth SR50 billion will be established in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, according to Prince Sultan Bin Salman, Secretary General of the Supreme Commission for Tourism (SCT).
"SCT intends to carry out a number of tourism projects on the Red Sea coast," he told a group of travel and tourism executives in Tunis last night.
"We'll establish coastal resorts on the Red Sea and operate tourist centers in the Kingdom's rural areas to ensure continuous development of urban and rural areas and promote domestic tourism," he explained.
Prince Sultan Bin Salman also disclosed plans to hold a variety of programs to attract tourists from the Kingdom and abroad. "We have already decided to organize a car rally with the participation of well-known race drivers in the Kingdom and abroad," he said.
The SCT chief said the tourist visa project was in the final stage and would see the light within months. The Foreign Ministry issued this year 5,537 tourist visas to Americans, Europeans and Africans to help them visit the Kingdom under a Saudi Arabian Airlines program titled "Discover Saudi Arabia."
The foreign tourists came on one- to two-week package programs organized by Saudia agents abroad and were taken to resorts and heritage sites in Jeddah, Riyadh, Abha, Dammam, Najran and Madain Saleh.
Prince Sultan Bin Salman said the tourism sector would create 1.5 million jobs in the next 20 years. He also disclosed plans to Saudize 80 percent of jobs in sectors such as travel and tourism agents, hotels and furnished apartments, Hajj and Umrah, recreation centers and cottage industries and handicrafts.
He underlined government efforts to preserve the Kingdom's architectural heritage. "There are 6,366 heritage and antiquities sites in the Kingdom, of them 1,975 comes under architectural heritage," Prince Sultan Bin Salman said.
He emphasized women's role in promoting tourism and said they would be trained to work in different sectors of the hospitality trade. He said training of Saudi jobseekers in the travel and tourism sector would start in June. "We will hold a special training program for immigration and customs officials working at airports and seaports," he said.
