Chairman of SCTA Prince Sultan bin Salman said the magazine, which took five years to prepare, is an opportunity to educate people. “My dream is for all those living in the Kingdom to see what I see in it in terms of the much undiscovered history, places of interest and culture,” he said.
Speaking about the prize, Abdullah Al-Jehani, vice president for SCTA’s marketing and media, said that incentives always lead to progress, pointing out that such prizes create honest competition between various sectors to enhance tourism services.
Al-Jehani said the magazine has been launched to bridge the existing gap in English brochures and periodicals that focus on Saudi tourism. He added that the magazine presents its foreign readers with a variety of tourist destinations in the Kingdom, and those involved in the tourist industry with cultural and historical information about the Kingdom.
“Voyager has been established to address an English-speaking audience and those interested in the tourism industry,” said the magazine’s consultant-editor Barry Gray. He added that the Kingdom holds a lot of potential with regard to tourism and hospitality, and that the magazine has been launched to highlight this.
“I myself came to the Kingdom in 1983 and visited many remote areas and interesting places, including taking the train to Dammam, which I believe many Saudis have not yet done,” said Gray, adding that tourism in the Kingdom is promising, yet the lack of awareness is what holds people back and this will be one of the magazine's missions.
“We will influence both ends of the spectrum — on one side there are English- or Arabic-speaking residents and on the other, there are those involved in the tourism industry who will find a market here,” he said.
The magazine has been published by SCTA in cooperation with Alef Publishing & Media International. The magazine will be distributed at embassies, hotels and other points of sales.
Meanwhile, 588,363 Saudi travelers left the Kingdom during the Eid Al-Adha holidays spending a total SR3.14 billion (an average SR5,339 per tourist), a 5 percent increase to last year. The number of tourists coming to the Kingdom exceeded 715,282 visitors spending a total SR1.6 billion (an average SR2,264 per tourist).
According to a report by Tourism Research and Information at SCTA, Bahrain was the top destination for Saudi tourists, followed by Kuwait, Jordan, the UAE, Yemen, Qatar, Egypt and Lebanon. The majority of tourists coming into the Kingdom were from Bahrain, followed by Kuwait, the UAE, Yemen and Qatar.
