During a recent interview in Riyadh with a very enlightened Saudi corporate manager, I inquired about the gentleman’s birthplace. “Al-Jouf,” he replied. I was taken aback. Seeing that I was at a loss for words, he smiled and said, “Let me show you something of a place dear to me.”
He reached into a desk drawer and then handed me a booklet, titled “Al-Jouf: Echoes from History.” The booklet was an attractive publication and an excellent promotion for Saudi Arabia’s northern gateway region, which links Syria and Iraq with the Arabian Peninsula. At the end of the lovely little booklet I was surprised to find that the publication had been created for Al-Nusl Hotel, a property located in Al-Jouf’s provincial capital, Sakaka.
The manager insisted that I take the booklet so I could peruse it at leisure. On the flight from Riyadh to Dammam, I spent an enjoyable time learning about the rich history, archaeology and antiquities of Al-Jouf. According to the booklet, “there are a large number of sites of human occupation in Al-Jouf, dating back to the Paleolithic and subsequent ages. The most important of them is a site near Shouwaihatiya, a village about 30 km north of Sakaka. It is the oldest site of human habitation yet discovered in the Kingdom ‘arguably’ dating back 1.3 million years.”
I read about the oasis town, Dumat Al-Jandal, which is the location of the imposing Qasr Marid, a walled fortress in existence at the time of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). Next to Qasr Marid is the Umar Mosque, reportedly built during the time of the second Caliph, Umar ibn Al-Khattab. Many other famous archaeological sites can be seen throughout Al-Jouf including Wadi Sirhan, Qasr Zabal and Al-Tuwair.
The booklet inspired investigation. Phoning Al-Nusl Hotel, I was soon chatting with the hotel manager, Mahmood Tahtamouni. He informed me that the 45-room, 4-star, grade “A” hotel was inaugurated in 1995. The booklet on Al-Jouf had been put together by a team of professionals. A photographer had even been brought to Al-Jouf to shoot the required images. It had been necessary to create a high-quality publication for distribution to travel agents to enable them to promote Al-Jouf and the hotel as a tourist destination.
“The design of Al-Nusl Hotel is unique in Saudi Arabia. Its cooling tower and other traditional Najdi, Mediterranean and Gulf architectural features, give our guests the impression that they are staying at a palace, not a hotel,” Tahtamouni said. “We get many groups who come to see the archaeological sites of Al-Jouf. Groups from local companies, such as Saudi Aramco, come for a long weekend. Tourists coming from Europe on two-week tours of the Kingdom, usually spend three days in Al-Jouf. We have a Saudi guide who takes the tour groups around to the historical places and we provide all inclusive packages that cover accommodation, meals and transport, so the tourists don’t have to worry about anything.”
Al-Nusl Hotel is owned by the Abdul Rahman Al-Sudairy Foundation. The foundation’s mission is to promote culture and enlightenment, as well as preserving the archeological and literary heritage of Al-Jouf. By doing so, the foundation aims to contribute to a greater movement toward social and cultural development in Saudi Arabia. The foundation is a testimony to the vision of its founder, Prince Abdul Rahman Al-Sudairy. The governor of Al-Jouf from 1943-1989, Prince Abdul Rahman is also a poet, author and patron of date farming and the breeding of Arabian horses and camels.
He founded both the first public library in Al-Jouf and the first public library for women in Saudi Arabia.
Today, the foundation is an integrated institution that supports libraries, cultural centers, schools, publishing projects, research grants and educational scholarships. The board of the foundation works to ensure that most of the foundation’s resources are invested in development projects in Al-Jouf, in order to contribute to the local economy and make possible the completion of some essential facilities in the region.
Once it began promoting the archaeological and historical sites of Al-Jouf, the foundation became aware that to develop tourism further, a hotel offering first-class hospitality service was required. Al-Nusl Hotel was built. The hotel is the location of a permanent exhibition of locally made carpets and other valuable antiques donated by Prince Abdul Rahman and other collectors in the region.
The work of the Abdul Rahman Al-Sudairy Foundation is just one example of how tourism opportunities may be effectively developed in the Kingdom. Speaking at a press conference in Dubai, Prince Sultan ibn Salman, secretary-general of the Supreme Commission for Tourism (SCT), stated that plans are under way for at least 44 million tourists a year to be visiting sites of interest in the Kingdom, compared to 20.8 million tourists in 2001. These totals include local, international and religious tourists. The Kingdom’s tourist industry is currently worth $9.64 billion yearly.
The prince and his delegation were in Dubai to support the first Saudi pavilion at the Arabian Travel Market 2003. According to Prince Sultan, 38 tourism development areas and 175 designated tourist sites have now been identified in Saudi Arabia. To cater to the increased numbers of tourists, SCT estimates that an additional 50,000 hotel rooms must be built over the next 10 years to add to the 95,000 hotel rooms already in Saudi Arabia. The tourism industry will also need 74,000 more apartments constructed in the next decade. The Kingdom’s Council for Public Investment is working with SCT to generate funds for investment in tourism.
“Saudi Arabia is the birthplace of Islam and home to Islam’s holiest places. Large scale travel and tourism are not new activities in Saudi Arabia, they have been in our country for a long time,” said Prince Sultan. “We are diversifying our tourism industry. It is of course a major step and much of it must be done with caution because the eyes of the Islamic world are on us.”
While the government must be expected to lead this ambitious drive to increase tourism in order to provide jobs and to help diversify the nation’s economy, each Saudi must lend a hand in the effort. Spending holidays in the Kingdom, investing in needed tourism facilities or training to take up positions in the tourism trade, are all significant ways for the Saudi public to contribute toward building a successful Saudi tourism industry. Little things are important, too. Show friends photographs of a Saudi holiday. Tell colleagues about a weekend in-Kingdom getaway. Or, give a brochure about a Saudi tourist destination to someone you’ve just met.
Arab News Features 9 May 2003
