Prince Sultan bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, Secretary General of the Supreme Commission for Tourism in Saudi Arabia, has unveiled the Kingdom’s 20 year strategic plan for the development of tourism, designed to make country a major attraction among tourists domestically and internationally.
In his paper entitled, ‘Tourism Development in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’, he pointed out that the Kingdom is already more than capable of handling mass tourism. He revealed statistics showing that 57.6 million domestic trips are currently registered per year, in addition to 7.5 million inbound trips. For the year 2020, he projected a combined total of 141 million trips, which in turn could lead to the creation of between 1.5 and 2.3 million tourism-related jobs.
Prince Sultan bin Salman stated that Saudi Arabia’s main drivers in developing the tourism industry are: economic diversification, creating new job opportunities, achieving economic equilibrium, attracting investments from the private sector, and conservation of the cultural and environmental heritage.
In outlining the Kingdom’s 20 years strategic plan for the development of tourism, he explained that the strategic plan would be subdivided to tactical 5-year plans.