RIYADH: The share of the tourism sector in Saudi Arabia’s gross domestic product (GDP) stands at 2.7 percent but for the nonoil GDP it increases to 5.2 percent, according to a business magazine in the Eastern Region.

Iqtisad Magazine, published by the Eastern Province Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said the Kingdom acquired 15.3 percent of tourism revenues in the Middle East region in 2014, which captured 5 percent of the tourists of the globe.

Based on the MasterCard indications for the most important destinations, Riyadh was the third favored city for the visitors in the Middle East and Africa at 4.3 million passengers, or a compounded average growth rate (CAGR) of 18 percent, the magazine said.

Riyadh was among most important five cities to feed the region with passengers, the report said.

Meanwhile, the Kingdom ranked 64th globally in the index of the competitiveness of the travel and tourism and, thus, came ahead of other countries with known tourism history in the Middle East such as Tunisia (79), Egypt (83), Lebanon (94), Kuwait (103), Algeria (123), and Yemen (138), thanks to the strength of business environment, infrastructure and increased security and safety standards, the magazine said.

The report stressed the care given by the Saudi government to the tourism sector, which it considers a basic pillar in the future of tourism in the Kingdom.

This, according to the report, was reflected in the change of the name of the Saudi Commission of Tourism and Antiquities to the Commission for Tourism and National Heritage to demonstrate the government’ care over the position of national heritage and its close link to the history of the Kingdom.

The government’s care to the tourism also rests on its economic importance, notably as it provides many job opportunities for Saudi youths where the number of jobs reached more than 751,000 until last year, with Saudi employees comprising 27.1 percent, the magazine said.

Other aspects of tourism growth in the Kingdom was also reflected in the UNESCO’s placing of the rock drawings in Hail in the list of world heritage, which thus became the fourth Saudi location in the list of world heritage after Madain Saleh, Diriyyah and historic Jeddah, the magazine said.