RIYADH, 2 November 2003 — Saudi Arabia should give visas on arrival to visiting businessmen, the Riyadh Chamber of Commerce and Industry has proposed.
Abdul Rahman Al-Jeraisy, president of the Riyadh chamber, said the idea was to make it easier for businessmen to visit the Kingdom.
“We are trying to make it possible for businessmen when they arrive in the Kingdom to get a visit visa at the airport. The matter is still under consideration, but we are trying to convince the authorities that visa procedures should be simplified,” Al-Jeraisy said.
According to statistics released by the Supreme Commission for Tourism, registered domestic trips in the year 2000 reached about 14.5 million with total expenditure amounting to SR22.4 billion. As many as 44 percent were holiday trips, 37.5 percent were for Umrah and 19 percent to visit relatives and friends.
The total of international visitors in the same year was about 6.3 million. The survey also revealed that 36 percent of visitors came to perform Umrah, 22 percent for Haj, and 17 percent for other purposes, such as visits to relatives and friends.
Tourism ranks as one of the major foreign exchange earners in the Kingdom, nearly equal to the transport industry, where the revenue earned through tourism activities during the same year reached about SR35 billion, or about 5.4 percent of GNP. It contributed to the creation of 638 new job opportunities.
Asked about the status of the proposed IT Park in Riyadh, Al-Jeraisy said feasibility studies for the project were at an advanced stage. Both the Riyadh Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Arriyadh Development Authority (ADA) were collaborating in the venture, he said.
It could act as a hub for the development of the IT industry, especially for joint ventures involving software and other IT-related companies. “We want specialists to work in that park, especially those with expertise in software and systems integration,” he added.
