Arabian Business, Monday, Dec 9, 2019 | Rabi Al Thani 12, 1441
Why Saudi Arabia's new tourism push faces huge training challenge
Saudi Arabia:
Saudi Arabia has opened its doors to tourists, but faces huge challenges to
train an estimated one million staff needed to operate the sector, according to
the head of one forthcoming mega-project.
The ultra-conservative kingdom announced in September that it would offer
tourist visas for the first time, relaxing rules that had largely restricted
visits to business travellers and Muslim pilgrims.
But despite a slick global advertising campaign, Saudi tourism infrastructure is
still scant -- in contrast to its ambitions to welcome 100 million visitors by
2030.
The Red Sea Project, to be built across an archipelago of 90 islands and
stretching into nearby deserts and mountains, will open for business in 2022,
its CEO John Pagano said at a major investment forum in Riyadh.
"The challenges are
going to be related to investing in our people, training the workforce that we
need for the future," he told AFP on the conference sidelines.
"A million people
will be working in the tourism sector, so we need a country-scale initiative to
train tourism professionals."
The first phase of
the mega-project off the Saudi port city of Jeddah envisages 14 luxury hotels
built on five islands, with resorts in the mountains beyond.
Unlike other
destinations around the Red Sea, led by Egypt and Israel, Saudi Arabia is opting
for a luxury tourism model along the lines of the successful industries in Oman
and the United Arab Emirates.
"We are going to
limit the number of visitors because over-tourism is a major cause of
environmental damage," Pagano said.
But he added that the
Red Sea project alone promises to deliver 70,000 jobs and $5.9 billion towards
Saudi GDP annually.
"In Saudi Arabia,
tourism makes up just 3.4 percent of GDP so there is a huge opportunity to grow
in an industry that currently doesn't exist," he said.
Developing tourism is
one of the major planks of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's drive to wean the
economy off its decades-long dependence on oil revenues.
The Crown Prince has
sought to shake off his country's ultra-conservative image, lifting a ban on
cinemas and women drivers as well as allowing concerts and sporting
extravaganzas.
But Saudi Arabia,
which forbids alcohol and enforces strict rules on gender segregation, may not
be the easiest sell for global tourists.
To encourage
visitors, authorities announced they would allow unmarried foreign couples to
rent hotel rooms together, and that foreign women were not obliged to wear the
body-shrouding abaya that is still expected in public for Saudi women.
"The best way to face
the challenges is to open the country up, show what's happening," Pagano said.
"This country is going through a major transformation, every day you see new
things happening that people said would never happen."
"By the process of
tourism we are going to change the perception of the wider public, by people
coming, physically experiencing what Saudi Arabia has to offer.
|