SCTA President: I call upon youth to invest in the heritage villages and SMEs
Almasalla Arab Travel Portal News – Prince Sultan bin Salman bin Abdul Aziz, President of SCTA, has recently called on the Saudi youth to join investment in tourism sectors, especially in the heritage villages, restaurants, tourist and entertainment cities, and tourism Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in light of the training and rehabilitation programs provided by SCTA for investment in addition to financial support.
President of SCTA made his comments in a press conference on the sidelines of the sessions of the 14th Jeddah Economic Forum, which was held on Wednesday, 19th March in the presence of the chairman of Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI), Zyad Al Bassam.
President of SCTA, in his press conference said that, SCTA is pushing for acceleration of provision of financial support to the investors in tourism sector, which will contribute to the opening up of tourism investment market and creating a large number of job opportunities, and these are expected to be allowed due to the prospective tourism growth.
SCTA President in this context cited the Al Ogair Tourism City example which will be established over a 100 million square meters, and also cited other examples of the establishment of two heritage hotels in Najran and Al Ula and some tourism destinations on the coast of the Red Sea and in Al Taif municipality which aim at attracting domestic tourists and tourists of GCC countries who were estimated at about 4.5 million tourists in 2013. Also the number of domestic tours has reached 23 million in different parts of the Kingdom.
President further said that SCTA has undertaken setting an effective mechanism for pricing the services of furnished apartments for the next three years in light of the quantum leap in the construction and real estate sector, especially in Makkah and Al Madina cities.
President of SCTA, in his press conference called upon the youth to accept small jobs and to continue training in order to be able to access top jobs in tourism sector after being provided with required experience, qualifications and skills.
On the tourism visas, President of SCTA, said, that the program in its initial phase has targeted attraction of distinguished tourists to the Kingdom, but the program has been suspended currently until completing development of tourism facilities on the one hand and transforming seasonal tourism into sustainable tourism around the year on the other, as in case of Asir Festival which is under preparation for transforming Asir into a tourism destination around the year not just for a limited period during the year.
