RIYADH, 21 April 2004 — Prince Saud ibn Naif, the Kingdom’s ambassador to Spain, has been named Saudi Arabia’s representative to the World Tourism Organization, according to the Supreme Commission for Tourism.
The announcement was made at a meeting that Prince Saud and Prince Sultan ibn Salman, SCT secretary-general, had with Francesco Frangialli, secretary-general of the World Tourism Organization, and other senior officials.
At the meeting, Frangialli was briefed on the Kingdom’s drive to promote tourism both at the international level and within the Middle East. The talks centered on the role tourism could have in alleviating poverty and development of world heritage centers.
They discussed the creation of a safe and secure environment for tourists as well as the potential that tourism had in creating employment opportunities and boosting the national economy.
It was also announced that the World Tourism Organization would participate in a seminar on the development of tourism statistics to be held here on May 2.
In a related development, the World Tourism Organization officials referred to the launch of the first volume in a series of publications on Tourism and Poverty Alleviation at the World Summit on Sustainable Development held in Johannesburg in 2002. It provides a comprehensive analysis on tourism’s contribution to the alleviation of poverty in developing and least developed countries and outlines some principal areas of action.
During the last working session, the Kingdom, along with other countries from the Middle East, Europe and North America, made presentations about their tourism strategies concerning the sustainable development of the industry.
Participants visited the site of the One Tambon One Product (OTOP) initiative currently being developed by the Thai Ministry of Tourism in the north of the country on an experimental basis. The OTOP Tourism Project will support villages (tambon) with community-based tourism activities. It is expected that through the project tourism will make an effective contribution to the welfare of rural communities, reducing poverty levels amongst them and giving value to their traditions, culture and skills, the World Tourism Organization officials explained at the meeting.
