JEDDAH, 22 November 2005 — The Jeddah-based Arab Tourism Organization (ATO) will establish a bank with a capital of $2 billion to support tourism projects in Arab countries, its chairman Bandar Al-Fehaid announced yesterday.
“We have already started work to establish the new bank in cooperation with Investors Bank in Bahrain,” Al-Fehaid told Arab News, adding that the new bank would have branches in all Arab League member countries.
He said the bank would float part of its shares for public subscription, adding that Arab governments would be allowed to have stakes in it.
“Finance is one of the major problems facing the tourism sector and the new bank would play a big role in solving this problem to a great extent,” Al-Fehaid said.
He said ATO has introduced a number of projects and programs to promote tourism in the Arab world. “Selection of an Arab capital or city as the tourist capital of the year is one of these programs,” he explained.
The ATO chief said the tourism industry in Saudi Arabia alone would create more than one million jobs within the next 20 years. He said inter-Arab tourism made a record growth of 45 percent last year. “This is significant as the inter-Arab trade grew only eight percent,” he added.
