JEDDAH, 6 July 2007 — A deal was signed to establish an Arabian Tourism Bank to help create and improve tourist infrastructure facilities across the Arab world, at a meeting here on Wednesday night.
Prince Sultan ibn Salman, secretary general of the Supreme Commission for Tourism, and Lebanese Tourism Minister Joseph Sarkis participated in the signing ceremony held at the Jeddah Hilton. Mohammed ibn Ibrahim Al-Tuwaijri, assistant secretary general for economic affairs at the Arab League, was among those present.
“Lebanon has been a great tourist attraction,” Prince Sultan said and prayed for its stability, security and prosperity.
Sarkis said the agreement reflected the strong existing relations between Saudi Arabia and Lebanon. He urged Arabs to band together to promote tourism and said Arab League member states should collaborate to revive the ailing Middle East tourism industry after political instability and intermittent violence led to a sluggish 2006 season across the region.
Lebanon is one of many Arab League member states whose tourism sector has suffered from perceptions of regional insecurity following last summer’s war with Israel, ongoing conflicts in Iraq and Palestine, and other disturbing developments in other parts of the Middle East.
“It’s the role of Arab tourism ministries to promote a positive image of the Middle East and come up with more creative ideas to attract international visitors and activate the sector,” Sarkis said.
He proposed compiling a comprehensive Middle East tourism guide and hoped training sessions would be organized for hospitality personnel in order to fortify tourism in the Arab world.
Arab Tourism Organization President Bander Al-Fuhaid said he was happy that the agreement was signed. “Siraj Capital will facilitate the setting up of the new bank and was conducting studies with one of the international agencies for the purpose,” he said. Founders of the new bank include a number of Arab countries that will retain 40 percent of its share and the remaining 60 percent will be collected through initial public offering.
“An Arab country will be specified in due course for headquartering the new bank, which will subsequently open branches across the Arab world,” Al-Fuhaid said.
The new bank, which is being established following a decision of the Arab tourism ministers, will set up a $4 billion tourism development fund that will be sponsored by the Arab Tourism Organization through the tourism ministries of Arab countries.
“One of the main goals and tasks of the new bank is to strategically provide finance needed for establishing and improving tourist infrastructure projects. The tourism sector is vital for any country and the new bank will make available necessary finance and liquidity to develop the sector and make it competitive to attract both domestic and international investment,” he said.
Siraj Capital President Ghassan Al-Sulaiman said studies and researches conducted so far had shown that the new bank project could be the main support for developing the tourist sector. “After all, Arab tourism is growing rapidly and the sector has been generating a substantial revenue for some countries,” he said.
He said tourism and tourist services had not developed to the extent of attracting tourists in large numbers in certain countries. “They need to get a huge number of visitors from both within the country and overseas. They therefore need funds and investment to develop their tourism sector by launching new projects and training human resources to improve service,” Al-Sulaiman said.
