The projects, in collaboration with the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs, aim to stimulate the economy of the area through marketing heritage products and crafts of the locals as well as by providing job opportunities.
In the first stage, the projects will target five old towns: Juba in Hail province, Al-Ghat in Riyadh, Al-Ola in Madinah, Dhil Ayn in Baha, and Rijal Almae in Asir.
The SCTA stated that, although the Kingdom had many distinguished heritage villages and buildings available for development, the lack of awareness and understanding of their value postponed their development and reduced the benefits of their position.
The SCTA’s concern with heritage villages is part of developing major tourism and economic sources on which local communities can depend.
Developing such villages and towns contributes to the sustainable development plan and encourages micro and medium projects, which benefit both residents and investors.
In a study, the SCTA points out that the projects aim to reduce migration of locals to major cities and sustain a balanced development as well as revive traditional crafts and nonmaterialistic products known in the area. The projects also work toward involving the locals in rehabilitating their area and developing it for their own benefit, and to encourage investors.
In addition, the SCTA, by developing the villages and towns, works to ensure the availability of basic services necessary to those areas, such as roads, walking tracks for tourists, restaurants and coffee shops, groceries, public toilets, and local product sales points.
Drawing tourists to those heritage locations reflects positively on the locals and encourages families to provide food, beverages and local agricultural and animal products as well as seasonal products to the tourists.
According to the commission, supporting services and the operation of accommodating units, hotels, furnished apartments, restaurants, and transportation are part of the overall development of the villages and towns. On the other hand, the SCTA states that the projects and programs they accompany cater for financing means.
The government invests economically in them for a specific time so as to develop successful examples. Subsequently, they serve as role models for locals to follow by establishing investment partnerships to develop projects in heritage villages.
The SCTA’s study indicates that such projects are economically feasible and risk-tolerant, while the outcome is considerably high, as they can compete with the conventional hotels and accommodation units and become attractive to tourists.
Last year, the SCTA signed financing contracts worth SR7 million for two of the provinces’ heritage villages offered by the Credit Bank.
