JEDDAH, 29 June — Saudi Arabia attracted the largest number of Arab tourists last year, according to a top official at the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
“With three million tourists spending SR800 million, Saudi Arabia became the top tourist destination in the Arab world,” JCCI Secretary-General Dr. Majed Al-Qasabi told Arab News yesterday.
Al-Qasabi expected the number of visitors to cross seven million by next year. He said Saudis increasingly tend to spend their vacations and festival seasons inside the country against the earlier trend of traveling to foreign countries.
The tourism infrastructure being developed in the country coupled with the government’s efforts to encourage domestic tourism would help the sector to register tremendous growth, he said.
The JCCI official pointed out that tourism industry had huge employment potential.
At least 90,000 Saudis would be absorbed by the industry in the next five years because the volume of domestic tourism is expected to reach $12.3 billion by 2005, he said citing recent studies.
Tourism is expected to generate SR40 billion in revenues within the next two years, according to a study presented at a tourism seminar in Abha recently. The study said the industry would create 65,000 jobs for Saudis.
The summer festivals in Jeddah, Taif and Madinah last year attracted over five million people who might have spent around SR5 billion. Saudi Arabia boasts of 7,000 tourist facilities including 3,300 picnic spots. The country has four international airports and 22 regional airports as well as number of sea ports. It has one of the biggest road networks in the Middle East region.
Studies have indicated that investments in the hotel industry is expected to reach SR10 billion in the next 10 years. Currently there are 330 five- and four-star hotels scattered around the major cities and tourist centers across the country. Twenty-one top class hotels will be constructed in next few years.
