وكيل وزارة السياحة السعودية لتمكين الوجهات السياحية لـ CNBC عربية: المملكة جذبت 106ملايين سائح خلال عام 2023
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00:00 The future of hospitality in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has begun with the presence of government officials, investors, owners and hotel operators in the region, with a new 185 participants and 1,200 investors.
00:16 This summit is part of the 2024 version of the latest developments in the Kingdom and the most important issues of the sector under the slogan "Invest in Tomorrow, Today with Us".
00:29 This is in line with the course of the conference, which focuses on investment in hospitality and business leadership in the sector, sustainable development and the top of human capital.
00:40 To shed more light on the activities of this conference and the reality of the tourism sector in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, we welcome our guest, Mahmoud Abdelhadi,
00:51 Deputy Minister of Tourism of the Saudi Arabia to facilitate tourism destinations. Mr. Mahmoud, welcome to us. First, let's shed light on this conference and its general purpose.
01:10 What is the role of tourism destinations in the region? First, thank you for having me. Peace be upon you, viewers.
01:22 The importance of these conferences is to introduce the promising investment opportunities in the Kingdom in the tourism sector. As you know, the Kingdom is a large country with more than 10 diverse tourism destinations,
01:37 including the Sahara, the mountains, the Red Sea, and other attractive destinations for tourists. Therefore, the importance of these conferences is to introduce the promising investment opportunities
01:52 and to find a cooperation between investors to enter this market and enrich the tourist experience.
01:58 Let's talk about the number of tourists in the Kingdom in 2024. What are the objectives of the Kingdom to attract tourists?
02:08 In addition, what are the objectives for 2030 with the Kingdom's 2030 plan? What are the number of tourists that the Kingdom aims to attract?
02:19 As many people know, the Kingdom in 2023 has achieved its target of attracting 100 million tourists in December.
02:36 We have exceeded 106 million tourists. 27 million of these tourists came from outside the Kingdom, i.e. foreign tourists, and the total expenditure was more than 250 billion Saudi Riyals.
02:53 This success has made us reconsider our plans. The national tourism strategy is now under development and renewal.
03:05 However, we can say that from now until 2030, the target number of tourists has become 150 million tourists because we achieved our target seven years ago.
03:20 This is a great achievement. It came through the joint work between the government sector and the private sector. The private sector has invested in this field and created this important tourism experience.
03:36 We hope that they will continue to achieve the goals set by us for 2030, including the vision and national tourism strategy.
03:46 Speaking of the national tourism strategy, let's also open the door to the issue of laws and legislations.
03:52 To what extent have international standards been met today? In addition to the issue of visas, to what extent is the Kingdom open to all markets and nationalities to attract them?
04:09 We have more than 60 nationalities who can use immediate visas through electronic platforms. This facilitates the access to the Kingdom in a very large way and reduces the cost of access.
04:32 These visas make it easy to access. This is the first point. Secondly, we were talking about the laws and legislations.
04:48 The laws and legislations have re-formed the boards and systems that control the sector. The main goal was to increase transparency and attract investors and protect consumers, whether we are talking about tourism or consumer rights in the sector.
05:13 These boards and new laws were an important factor in facilitating the investment and increase in the Kingdom.
05:25 One of the things we worked on was to reduce the time required to obtain a visa from the Ministry of Tourism for a period of five days if the application is completed.
05:41 How many targets did the tourism sector contribute to the local income in the Kingdom, whether in the current year or in 2030?
05:53 In the past year, the tourism sector contributed 4%. The target is still 10% by 2030. These targets are still there.
06:11 The review will continue as the sector develops and the investment and the number of visitors in the sector increase.
06:26 Thank you, Mr. Mahmoud Abdelhadi, for all the details. You are the Deputy Minister of Tourism in Saudi Arabia. You were with us from Riyadh.