In view of last week’s decision by the Supreme Commission for Tourism (SCT) to license 18 tour operators as part of the move to open the Kingdom to tourists, this week’s call by the governor of Makkah, Prince Khaled Al-Faisal, for a revival of Islamic and Arab heritage is timely. There is not going to be a great rush to visit the Kingdom if the heritage is not available to view.
There is a great deal of history and heritage to attract tourists — not just the obvious places such as Madain Saleh or Al-Diriya or old Jeddah but others too: Najran, old Yanbu, the old quarter of Riyadh, Hofuf and many, many more. The trouble is that there is a gaping chasm between what could be and what is. How many UNESCO World Heritage sites are there in Saudi Arabia? Not one. The Kingdom is almost the only Arab state which can make that sorry claim. The sad truth is that despite the efforts of people such as the SCT’s secretary-general, Prince Sultan ibn Salman, or Jeddah architect Sami Angawi or historian Sami Nawwar who has worked tirelessly over the years (often seemingly alone) to protect Jeddah’s heritage, interest in the past is a joke in many quarters.
Old Jeddah, which should be at the top of the heritage list because it is so accessible to anyone interested in the country’s rich Islamic architectural past, continues to crumble. The same goes for old Riyadh; much of the little that is left is in a disgraceful state. Yet there is no shortage of funds to build new projects in either city. The wholesale destruction and redevelopment of central Madinah is another example of the scorn for heritage. The outrage that greeted the destruction of the city’s old Ottoman railway viaduct or that was felt at the destruction of its old Ottoman fort provoked no response from the authorities whatsoever.
Yet Madain Saleh, old Jeddah and Al-Diriya were last year named by the Saudi government as possible world heritage sites. They deserve to be on the UNESCO list — but a mountain needs to be climbed if they are going to make it, certainly in Jeddah’s case. In fact, all it needs to restore old Jeddah to glory is money — at least a billion riyals — and a organization that has the powers and the vision and skills to do what has to be done. It can be done. Saudi Arabia has access to both the money and the skills. It comes down to commitment: Do we want to protect our heritage and do we want tourism, other than religious tourism? The answer has to be yes to each if only for the most mercenary of reasons — heritage and tourism make money and create jobs.
As the Haj Ministry revealed last week, there is not enough room for extra numbers of would-be pilgrims; the ministry is putting a three-year moratorium on issuing new Haj travel licenses. Secular tourism is more than viable. But it is not going to happen without a serious commitment to heritage. That means investment — government investment because this is not a private sector matter — on a major scale. That is where the commitment must start.
