The Saudi Minister of Tourism, Ahmed Al-Khatib, revealed that 65 million domestic tourist visits were recorded last year, which contributed to recording spending of 80 billion riyals, which is a record number.
During a dialogue session entitled “The Impact of Vision 2030 Initiatives on Saudi Cities”, the minister explained that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will be one of the top 10 tourist destinations in the world.
He continued, “We are working on tourism products that we will launch soon in Saudi Arabia.”
He added that the Ministry of Tourism has drawn up strategic plans To develop tourism in the KingdomWhere it worked on a comprehensive survey in the Kingdom, during which it made optimal use of the tourist sites, including the Red Sea Project, which extends over an area of 1700 km.
The Minister of Tourism revealed that the Kingdom aims, during 2030, to attract 100 million visitors, 50% of whom will be hosted by the capital, Riyadh.
Al-Khatib indicated that the Tourism Development Fund is ready to finance tourism projects up to 50% of the project value, and the banks will support part of it as well, noting that the ministry focused on developing strategic and governance plans, to raise the percentage of tourism in the Kingdom to 10%, which will support the national economy.
He stated that the ministry had signed an agreement to build a training headquarters in the capital, Riyadh, to rehabilitate human resources, and had trained more than 50,000 male and female citizens in the tourism sector, with the aim of reaching one million jobs in the field of tourism, in order to achieve the vision of the Kingdom 2030.
It is noteworthy that Saudi Arabia has launched an ambitious and deliberate program to revive the tourism sector and attract larger numbers of foreign tourists to the Kingdom. Or those who want to learn about Arab culture.
The Saudi Minister of Tourism, Ahmed Al-Khatib, said that the government is offering incentives as part of the air communication program and is in talks with airlines about the open plan for any carrier to receive support, according to what was quoted by Bloomberg Agency.
He explained that the kingdom had already signed a deal with the Saudi national airline to travel to Zurich and Barcelona as part of the program.