JEDDAH, 20 August 2006 — Prince Sultan ibn Salman, secretary-general of the Supreme Commission for Tourism, emphasized SCT’s determination to promote morality-based tourism in the Kingdom.

“For us, tourism is a social activity rather than an economic venture,” he said and referred to a growing world trend in support of family-based tourism.

Speaking at a dialogue with businessmen organized by Al-Eqtisadiah, a sister publication of Arab News, Sultan pointed out that 70 percent of Saudis prefer to spend their holidays within the Kingdom.

“There is a mistaken idea that all Saudis want to go abroad to spend their holidays. In fact, about 70 percent of them prefer to spend their vacations inside the Kingdom,” he said.

The SCT chief said his organization was doing a lot to attract Saudi tourists. “I myself consider Saudis as the first international tourists and you can see more than 90 percent of our programs target Saudi tourists. Although foreign tourists are significant at this stage, we give priority to Saudi tourists. If we develop more tourist sites and organize attractive programs, the number of Saudis going abroad will dwindle,” he explained.

He acknowledged that the number of foreign tourists coming to the Kingdom was comparatively small. “At present, we are not prepared to welcome a large groups of foreigners, in terms of infrastructure and qualified manpower.”

Speaking about tourist visas, Prince Sultan said a decision on the matter had been taken as early as 1999, one year before the commission’s formation. Since then many foreign tourist delegations had come.

“A decision was taken at that time that in the absence of qualified tour operators, Saudi Arabian Airlines would carry out the program under the name ‘Discover the Kingdom’. Now we have begun licensing qualified travel agencies to organize trips for foreign tourists. We have told the travel agents to appoint Saudi tour guides in order to get a license.”

He agreed that tourism had a bad reputation in the past as a result of misuse and excesses. “There is a trend for family tourism and the International Tourism Organization and many countries give importance to it as part of their efforts to make tourism a clean industry and fight aspects of moral distortion,” he told the businessmen.

Prince Sultan said morality-based tourism was increasingly becoming popular around the world. “Morality is the basis of Saudi tourism and we will follow the teachings of Shariah while promoting this industry,” he said.

He spoke about SCT’s achievements in the past six years. “We are in a transition period as we have entered the phase of execution this year,” he said and referred to efforts to train Saudis to take up various tourism jobs by setting up three specialized colleges and encouraging universities to offer specialized courses. “We are in need of 50 training centers and institutes to meet market needs for the next 20 years,” he added.

The SCT chief refuted the argument that many Saudis were going abroad for tourism because of rising prices within the country. “This is an exaggeration. We have conducted a comparative study on prices of tickets, accommodation and other services. We have found that the prices offered by travel and tourism agencies and other related organizations in the Kingdom were much less than those charged by their foreign counterparts,” he said.

“Prices in the southern tourist resort of Abha are the lowest compared to other Saudi regions. We also found that the rates in Lebanon are 67 percent higher than the prices charged by Saudi tourist centers such as Abha, Jeddah and the Eastern Province. The prices in France and Britain are higher than what we offer by 400 and 300 percent respectively,” he said and urged Saudis to plan their tour programs in advance with the help of tour operators in order to cut unnecessary expenditures.

Prince Sultan was bullish about the Kingdom’s vast tourism prospects. “We have a large tourism market especially in the areas of heritage and culture. Saudi Arabia is a first-class heritage state as there are thousands of antiquities and we have discovered only a limited number of them. The Kingdom’s geographical position has made it an intersection of many civilizations. We are, of course, the cradle of Islam,” he explained.

He stressed SCT’s plan to expand the Kingdom’s tourism infrastructure with the private sector’s support. “This will not only boost the economy but also create more job opportunities for young Saudi graduates.”

Referring to new developments in the sector, Prince Sultan said the SCT was reclassifying hotels and furnished apartments, establishing commercial tourist societies and activating conference-and exhibition-based tourism. “We look at the private sector as a principal partner to develop this industry. Private sector representatives constitute half the members of the regional tourism councils,” he said, adding that SCT had sought the opinion of businessmen on its various laws and systems.

“We also work with the chambers of commerce and businessmen to market regions for tourism purposes. We have produced a number of documentaries highlighting tourist attractions in various regions,” the prince added.