- ABHA: Tourist projects in the Kingdom during the period 2011-2015 will have an estimated cost of SR64 billion, excluding the basic infrastructure projects, adviser to the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities (SCTA) in Asir Province Kahled Taher said.
- He was talking at a workshop held in Baha recently under the title “Asir: the First Tourist Haven in the Kingdom by 2015.”
He said SR48 billion would come from the private sector and SR15 billion from the government, including SR2.3 billion from the SCTA representing about 15 percent.
A number of tourist experts took part in the workshop, held at Kasr Abha Hotel, to draw a unified vision of tourism in Asir region in the coming five years.
Director of tourist data in the SCTA Mundhir Al-Ansari said about 54 percent of people visiting Asir came to spend their holidays there, while 43 percent came to visit their relatives and friends. He added that people also came to Asir for work and business.
Al-Ansari said that tourism contributed about seven percent to the Gross Domestic Product (excluding oil) and that some 20,000 people are employed in the tourism sector, which represents approximately seven percent of the private sector jobs. He, however, said there were only two tourist guides in the region.
Al-Ansari said a study rated tourism in the region with 4.2 marks out of five. He said about 75 percent of the people surveyed for the study complained about the high accommodation costs and called for providing more housing facilities.