RIYADH, 8 May 2004 — Saudi Arabia’s astronaut Prince Sultan ibn Salman has flown fighter jets and orbited earth in the space shuttle. His latest mission is to sell a more down-to-earth message to Saudis: “Stay home.”
The prince, head of Saudi Arabia’s Supreme Commission for Tourism, plans to stem the tide of over four million Saudis who escape every year to holiday abroad and persuade them instead to spend time and money in their own country.
At stake are 1.5 million tourism-related jobs over the next 20 years, the prince says, a valuable prize in a country whose population explosion has left it struggling to find work for armies of school and university leavers. The country’s vast deserts, strict codes, and few signs of tourist infrastructure mean that even the most patriotic Saudis prefer to vacation abroad.
“My mission is to make Saudi Arabia their No. 1 choice for tourism,” the prince said in his offices on the outskirts of Riyadh. “And to make it their No. 1 choice is going to be a lot of work.”
In 1985 Sultan became the first astronaut from the Arab world when he went into space with six US and French colleagues on board the space shuttle Discovery.
Fifteen years later he was appointed head of the newly formed Tourism Commission, tasked with encouraging tourism in the country to diversify its revenues away from oil dependence. “It’s not an easy task. It’s going to involve a lot of structural change. Our government is structured around the oil industry,” he said.
Officials in the Kingdom have talked about issuing more foreign tourist visas — at present only a few thousand people come each year on select tours.
Sultan said attracting foreign visitors is not yet a priority, though, while Saudi Arabia is still just beginning to set up its tourism projects. “It’s a valid question but I’m not so pressured to bring foreigners right now. I would really like the system to be under control first so that once they come here they find what they expected is exactly what they get,” he said.
Pilgrims Package
Instead the Tourism Commission is launching a series of cultural festivals and sporting activities, which it hopes will keep Saudis at home during their holidays — and will also tempt some of the millions of Muslim pilgrims who visit the holy city of Makkah to stay on and mix devotion with leisure. Millions of Muslims come to Saudi Arabia every year to perform pilgrimage, a potentially lucrative market if they can be persuaded to try out attractions planned by the commission.
“We’re talking about falconry, Arabian horse festivals, camel festivals,” the prince said.
Activities could include driving across desert sand dunes, otherwise known as “dune bashing”, diving in the Red Sea and ballooning or paragliding over mountainous southern provinces. “Just wait till we develop the Red Sea areas,” he said.
Inspired by neighboring Bahrain’s successful Formula One race, the first in the Middle East, the prince said he wanted Saudi Arabia to host a more traditional desert competition. “It will be a cross desert rally, K1 — camels Formula One.”
The world’s biggest date producer should also celebrate its produce with a date festival including palm tree climbing races.
“Saudi Arabia is so rich in tourism assets that we have not even begun to tap them,” he said. If the Kingdom could also attract visitors from the region for business meetings and conferences it could build up a tourism infrastructure employing 1.5 million people over the next two decades, he added.
But the first battle is on the home front, persuading Saudis that they don’t need to cross the border to take a break.
“I cannot believe that the majority of Saudis have not really traveled in their own country, do not know the value of such a huge and diverse country,” he said.
