SCTH apporoves 12 new memberships of agro-tourism in 5 regions
ATP- Arab tourism portal- Quite recently, SCTH has approved twelve new memberships of agricultural and rural tourism project “Aryaf” covering five provinces in the Kingdom – Makkah, Hail, Tabuk, Najran, Al Qassim, and Al Ahsa Governorate.
With this, the total number of farms that have joined the agro and rural tourism program project so far, have reached 76 across various regions of the Kingdom.
The Tourism Commission has urged all the investors and farmers to invest in agriculture and rural tourism project “Aryaf”, which is adopted by SCTH through its branches across different parts of the Kingdom.
“Aryaf” project is one of the initiatives of SCTH and a new tourism product added to the national economy.
This project offers interesting tourism trips to agricultural and rural areas, during which a tourist visits a farm and enjoys a number of activities and services on the farmland. Studies have indicated that these projects are economically feasible and bear the risks during operation, besides the earnings are relatively high. In addition, it is estimated as a competitor to traditional hotels and accommodation units and a magnet for tourists, both citizens and residents, despite there is dearth of competition in this sort of accommodation services associated with rural tourism.
This project reflects the importance of development of agro tourism across rural areas in the Kingdom, especially that 48% of Saudis are engaged in the agriculture sector. They can contribute to enriching domestic tourism experience, creating elements of entertainment, fun and education for the tourist in their farms. In addition, it can provide additional income to farmers and employment opportunities for the residents of the provinces.
The project also enables the farmers to develop tourism products, programs and services and variety of tourism activities on their farms. Already this type of tourism at the international level is witnessing growing demand from the public where it is estimated to grow by about 10%-15% of the total world tourist spending.
Noteworthy, SCTH and the Agricultural Development Fund (ADF) have recently signed a cooperation agreement under which ADF will provide loans to farmers to develop their farms in accordance with the standards stipulated by SCTH and join the agro tourism program.
According to the agro census released by the Central Department of Statistics and Information (CDSI), the total number of farms in the Kingdom in 2014, are estimated at more than 285,000 farms, and agriculture is an important source of income for a large proportion of Saudi society.
The same farms can also provide exciting tourism escapades for domestic tourists over the weekends, if properly employed.
This type of tourism can not only convert farms into tourist projects instead of just being there as farmlands, it can better exploit the farm-installations and fixed costs by generating additional income contributing to the development of the capacities of farms and improve the living standard of households relying on agriculture.
