The three-day meeting, held under the slogan “Toward Creative Administration of Tourism Investments”, is attended by a number of Arab tourism ministers as well as representatives for global organizations.

Opening the conference, Prime Minister Marouf Bakhit underscored the importance of developing tourism products and infrastructure for attracting visitors to the region from all over the world.

”We consider the promotion of regional investments a strategic target for supporting the common Arab tourism product which will be instrumental in reactivating inter-Arab investments and tourism,” Bakhit said.

He pointed out that the selection of Aqaba as ”the capital of Arab tourism for 2011” coincided with the celebration of the World Tourism Day under the theme ”Tourism— Linking Cultures”.

Chairman of the Arab Tourism Organization, Bander bin Fahd, attached special importance to the meeting in handling the devastating fallout on regional tourism from Arab uprisings.

He estimated the loss of Arab tourism as a result of the Arab Spring at about $7 billion.

The Saudi delegation to the conference was led by Chairman of the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities Prince Sultan bin Salman.

Prince Sultan held a meeting on the sidelines of the conference with the Jordanian prime minister, who expressed readiness for boosting cooperation between the two countries in all tourism fields.

Bakhit said that ties between Jordan and Saudi Arabia were passing through ”unprecedented phase of cooperation and mutual understanding, thanks to the keenness of the two leaderships on boosting the historical and fraternal ties between the two peoples”.