JEDDAH, 15 February — The number of Saudi tourists going to the United States has taken a dramatic fall.
More than 40,000 Saudis — 90 percent of all Saudis who used to vacation in the United States — will be heading for some other destination this year, according to sources at the travel and tourism market in the Kingdom.
Tourism businesses in Riyadh have also revealed that several major companies in the Kingdom have refused to send their employees on training programs in the United States.
Khaled Al-Qahtani, the marketing manager of a leading tourism company in the Central Province, said eight large companies have canceled their enrollment on such schemes, which would have sent 160 workers to the United States. While some of them are waiting for the situation to stabilize, others have already sent their workers to alternative courses in the UAE and Bahrain.
Mohaideb Al-Mohaideb, president of the National Committee for Air Transportation and director general of Al-Sarah Travel and Tourism company, said the events of Sept. 11 have hit the local tourism industry hard.
“Saudis and other Arab tourists who still plan to travel to the US and Europe are very few in number,” Al-Mohaideb said. They are now drawn to countries such as Australia, the Maldives, South Africa and Mauritius, which were ignored by Arabs until recently, he told Al-Watan newspaper.
Apart from losing a large number of tourists, the US market has also lost more than 10,000 Saudi travelers who would have gone there to study or for medical treatment, mainly because of new visa regulations.
