DUBAI – Saudi Arabia is to release a new national tourism plan by the end of the year.
The long term vision for the country’s hospitality sector estimates visitor numbers will nearly double from 47 million in 2008 to 88 million by 2020, while the number of hotel rooms would rise from 117,097 to 254,310.
Speaking at the Arabian Hotel Investment Conference (AHIC), president and board chairman of the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities, Prince Sultan bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud, said, “We have a major programme for human resource development as we see tourism as a major job creator.â€
Prince Sultan stressed that development in the Kingdom was responding to demand from the domestic market and that the emphasis in the next two years would be to fulfil this need rather than cultivate overseas visitor markets
“More than US$10 billion is spent by Saudi Arabians on travelling overseas … but they are now eager to spend a good part of their holidays at home,” he said.
“We aimed to capture five percent of this but with the trend to ‘holiday at home’, this could be bigger – there is a large gap between supply and demand with areas such as weekend traffic showing major growth potential.”
To fulfil this demand, Prince Sultan pointed to the major developments already underway in the Kingdom.
“In Jeddah alone, there is a project to redevelop the historic centre while we have 17km of untouched beachfront in the city centre,” he said.
“We are working on the historic ports of the Red Sea and the railway connecting western Saudi Arabia to the east coast.
“The Red Sea will be one of the biggest growth areas with up to 21 new destinations – indeed, we will announce at least one or two of these new projects by the end of this year.”
To diversify the tourism product, Prince Sultan said other initiatives included the launch of eco-lodges and farm hotels, as well as heritage accommodation:
“We are sure that hotel investment will be one of the biggest growth areas in Saudi Arabia as tourism is accepted on the national agenda,” he said.
