JEDDAH, 24 June 2005 — For the first time a course for women on planning tourism projects is being held in Saudi cities at the chambers of commerce and industry.
The course is being sponsored by the Supreme Commission for Tourism (SCT), which started this course in Riyadh last week and in Jeddah this week. The course will also be held in Dammam.
In Jeddah, the SCT received many applications and around 20 to 25 women were accepted, most of them around the age of twenty-five. From this course women will be able to get all the basic information they will need concerning planning for tourism projects or events.
They get to learn about a combination of a variety of subjects such as marketing, advertising and industry to help promote their projects at the end of the course.
Dr. Wisal Abo-Alam, an expert on tourism and hospitality, came from Egypt especially to teach the course.
“I’m impressed with the level of education these girls have. Most of them work in travel agencies and have computer or languages degrees.
“The first course I gave in Riyadh was very successful and from looking at the faces of the Jeddah women I believe we will have equally good results too,” she said.
Abo-Alam also explained that the responses, knowledge, enthusiasm and suggested projects from the participants were striking. “Though the course is only for four days, yet I was able to illustrate all the points I had in mind and that was my success,” she added.
Saudi women who attended this course in Jeddah were glad to have this chance in Saudi Arabia, especially to learn from an expert.
Ohoud Aseri, a Saudi employee at a foreign airline said, “As soon as I heard of the course I knew I did not want to miss it. The lecturer is great at explaining the information. The workshop is also interesting for we get to apply all what we learned step by step.”
Mashael Anas, a twelfth-grader who attended the course in Jeddah, was happy with the experience. Mashael is planning to get a degree in homeotherapy, yet she believes it is important to learn about planning for tourism projects.
The holding of this course for women is part of the SCT’s push to get more Saudi women involved in the local tourism industry, according to Prince Abdul Aziz ibn Fahd ibn Abdullah, the deputy secretary-general for investment and marketing at the SCT.
At a recent press conference Prince Abdul Aziz said women’s participation in tourism activities has been discussed at length with businesswomen and that a program is underway to implement a strategy for their participation in developing the tourism industry.
Arab News asked the prince about visas for businesswomen and tourists and the restrictions and requirements currently applied, such as the need for women travelers to have a mahram or male guardian, and he said “new policies for visas are being introduced and will take care of all these concerns extremely soon.”
A source at the general secretariat of the GCC said that GCC ministers of interior are discussing issuing a unified tourist visa for country members by the end of the year, similar to the EU Schengen visa, but that it will be available only to citizens of 35 foreign countries. Under this scheme, women visitors would not need a mahram, but would have to be aged 35 years and above.
