The Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities (SCTA), boosted by the new powers vested in it, has taken several steps to revamp the kingdom’s tourism sector.

Speaking on the final day of the Arabian Hotel Investment Conference, special guest speaker Prince Sultan bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud, chairman of the Board and secretary general of SCTA, said a recent statute has enabled the commission to restructure the industry under its new designation.

As the chairman and president of SCTA, he now reports directly to the King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud. He said this move highlighted the importance that is now given to the tourism sector.

"With responsibility for three new sectors as well as development of three more, we will be dealing with antiquities and museums, including exploration, plus accommodation, travel agents, tour operators and tourism masterplans," explained Prince Sultan.

He said classification of hotels had begun, starting in Makkah and Madinah, while a major study was probing the possible expansion of a heritage inn chain similar to the parador system in Spain.

"We are also looking at historic palaces to turn them into accommodation or build rooms around them, plus historic villages – we have five planned and there will be accommodation in these."

Prince Sultan revealed to the conference that a Red Sea Tourism masterplan was also in place.

Measures were being implemented to meet the challenge of Saudisation in the travel and tourism sector, he said.

"We have three colleges planned and three or four more to come, partnering with major operators such as Accor," he said.

While explaining that the mandate for the SCTA was to ensure that tourism adds value to the economy, culture and society, Prince Sultan emphasised that the first major target market was to attract the domestic audience, five million of whom travel overseas each year.

He said that measures were in place to streamline annual vacations to give people more shorter holidays.

The commission was looking to provide seed capital to event organisers to create MICE attractions in the kingdom, he said.

"We have around 100 events this year, of which 15 are signature events, and there will be a lot more next year.

"Another development is the licensing of timeshare which has encouraged around 15 companies to set up in this sector already. We are also licensing tour operators, which did not exist previously."

Turning to visas, he said an e-system was being put in place, and those who came in to Saudi Arabia on a religious visa for Umrah could transfer this to a tourism visa electronically within 12 hours.

"We have also welcomed our first cruise passengers to Jeddah last month, as well as groups – but we are not ready to open up totally. Realistically, we are just at the start of the creation of the service side of tourism, as well as infrastructure, and we want to be in good shape first."

Other initiatives complementing this expansion included the addition of four more airports, bringing the total to 30, plus the construction of gateway airport cities, starting with Jeddah, which would include accommodation, exhibition and conference facilities to target the meetings sector, he said. – TradeArabia News Service