RIYADH, 3 December — The Supreme Commission of Tourism (SCT) has signed an agreement with King Abdul Aziz City for Science and Technology for making use of its satellite imagery and remote sensing capabilities for producing a tourism map.
The agreement was signed yesterday at the headquarters of SCT by Prince Sultan ibn Salman, secretary-general of the commission, and Dr. Saleh Al-Athel, president of King Abdul Aziz City for Science and Technology. Dr. Abdullah Al-Rasheed and Dr. Muhammad Al-Swayyl, KACST vice presidents for scientific research and research institutes respectively, and other senior executives were among those present.
Under the agreement, KACST will provide the commission with satellite images obtained from SPOT, IRS and Radarsat satellites. It will also help the SCT staff in training and analyzing the images using remote sensing technology. Further, there will be exchange of information for developing a database, which could then be placed on the Internet.
Later, addressing a press conference, Prince Sultan said it was a landmark agreement as the commission will have access to KACST’s expertise for the production of GIS maps. The Kingdom, he pointed out, had over 10,000 locations with tourism potential in terms of cultural, archaeological or historical importance. The agreement would help to tap their tourism potential as there would be close cooperation and coordination between the two organizations.
Prince Sultan said the Kingdom’s private sector will have an important role to play in the promotion of domestic tourism, particularly in the development of infrastructure. This would open up investment avenues for the private sector. Those interested could obtain from the commission data regarding any particular region.
Describing tourism as a “partnership project”, he said the commission’s 18-member board of directors symbolized this mutuality of interests. “We have 11 ministers and seven representatives from the private sector. The government recognizes that the tourism sector needs its cooperation for speedy growth. The GIS will play an important role in identifying the tourism potential of each place as well as in planning and developing the sites according to a set of priorities.”
In response to a question, Prince Sultan said the commission is in the process of collecting data on the various tourist attractions of the Kingdom. Once the data has been analyzed, it would provide a broader picture of which sites have been developed, are under development, or are still in the budding stage.
This is in addition to some 200-300 scientific studies which have yielded useful data on the Kingdom’s tourism potential. Such input would help tourism planners a great deal.
On the security aspect of tourism, he said the commission studied the experience of 17 countries around the world. These countries, including Tunisia, Morocco, Malaysia and Australia, have been doing well both in terms of tourist traffic and tourism security. “We would be able to take a decision only after we have learned enough from their experience,” he observed.
Speaking on behalf of KACST, Dr. Al-Athel described it as a major development in the tourism sector. He said KACST’s resources in the fields of satellite imagery, remote sensing and Geographic Information System would help in the systematic growth of the tourism sector. Dr. Walid Al-Hemaidi, director of Environmental and Urban Development Department, explained the commission’s program for the sustainable growth of tourism with due regard for environmental aspects in all its planning and execution.
