RIYADH, 14 August 2003 — A delegation from the National Commission for Wildlife Conservation and Development (NCWCD) in Riyadh will participate in the World Parks Congress to be held in Durban, South Africa, from Sept. 7 to 18. The congress, whose last session was held in 1992, is a major agenda-setting event for the management of protected areas around the world.
The Saudi delegation will be led by Dr. Abdul Aziz Abuzinada, secretary-general of NCWCD, who also has links with other international conservation agencies including the IUCN. Others attending the congress include Nelson Mandela, President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa and Queen Noor, wife of the late King Hussain of Jordan.
The congress will discuss various issues relating to the management of protected areas, an NCWCD spokesman told Arab News. He said there were 16 protected areas in the Kingdom which cover five percent of the land area. The delegates are also expected to discuss the role of the private sector in the management of protected areas. An exhibition on biodiversity and protected areas of countries from Morocco to Kazakhstan will be organized on the sidelines of the congress, the spokesman said.
One of the Kingdom’s priorities is the promotion of tourism in the protected areas. The principal challenge to those promoting tourism in the Kingdom is how to motivate Saudis to explore their own country.
A book on Asir entitled “Asir: Origin, Development and Tourism” released by the Ministry of Information and Tourism points out that Saudis will account for 2.8 percent of total global spending on tourism by 2005. Increased spending on tourism, likely to grow between five and 12 percent annually on a global level, will stimulate competition between local and international tour operators.
“Saudi Arabia ranks eighth in terms of the number of tourists traveling abroad,” according to the book. The book points out that only 24 percent of Saudi tourists visit summer resorts in the Kingdom while 29 percent travel to other Arab countries and the rest, or 47 percent, visit a variety of destinations.
Saudis spend a total of SR17 billion every year on foreign travel. The NCWCD has drawn up a master plan for developing ecotourism in the Kingdom. The plan covers 102 protected areas which will eventually be open to the private sector for promotion on a commercial basis. These areas form part of 10,000 potential tourist spots surveyed by the Supreme Commission on Tourism.
