Travel experts said that the 200 sunny days the Kingdom enjoys everyday will attract a flow of tourists into different parts of the country. The industry just needs more improvement and dedicated work. And it is happening. In 2007 alone, investors put more than SR30 billion into tourism projects in the Kingdom, said the CEO of Fast Future Research during the closing day of the forum of the Saudi Travel and Tourism Investment Market (STTIM)-2009, Thursday, organized by the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities (SCTA). Future plans for the tourism industry in the Kingdom come with an ambitious employment target to achieve. In 2020, the market should be able to provide 900,000 jobs in the industry, or 40 percent of current government jobs, the CEO said. With the flow of more investment into the industry, the target should be easier to reach. With investments like the one which The Ramada Hotel Group announced, travel experts see a bright future for the nation's tourism sector. The group said that it would open 12 new hotels in the Kingdom worth SR2 billion this year in Riyadh, Jeddah, Dammam, Makkah, Madina, Taif, Khobar, and Qassim. The Saudi Credit and Savings Bank in Qassim has financed tourism projects worth SR20 million including rest houses and small desert resorts, said Abdulrahman Al-Khushayban, the bank manager. In the Kingdom, tourism has become one of the largest providers of employment opportunities as job opportunities in travel and tourism agencies increased from 8,381 jobs in 2005 to 9,389 jobs in 2007, said Nasser Al-Tayyar. “Airline companies in the Kingdom, who benefit from the Saudi market, are required to organize training programs for Saudi youth in the field of tourism and travel,” he added. There are 4,563 travel operators in the Kingdom, including 1,503 travel agencies dedicated for Haj and Umrah. The SCTA in cooperation with travel and tourism agencies has laid out a plan for the ‘Saudization' of jobs in four phases. “It started with a field survey of all the travel and tourism agencies, identified by the nature of tourism professions and the number of employees and the ratios of Saudis in each profession, and then it worked on the consolidation of job titles and the identification of the prevailing wage levels in this sector as the national project for Saudization of tourism jobs (Ya Hala),” he said. Finally, a plan was prepared which was adopted by the Ministry of Labor in order to achieve 81 percent Saudization of travel and tourism agencies. Al-Tayyar also mentioned the efforts of SCTA and its partners in training 887 trainees in two groups, while SCTA also sought to attract 52 travel agencies to contribute to the project. But he regretted the lack of seriousness on the part of some young people and their withdrawal from work in the travel and tourism sector, pointing out that some of them could not adapt themselves to work in the designated sector, which is characterized by a “commitment to punctuality and discipline”. At least 91 tourist guides have been licensed in the Kingdom after receiving professional training and passing the required exams, said Tariq Khalifa, chairman of the advisory tourist guidance committee. He urged young people and retirees to work as tourist guides in a profession that gives them the privilege of being “an ambassador in his homeland and a source of tourist information to visitors”. Tourist guides earn a good income if they are “able to work with tourist groups, large and small, and coordinate with tourists and tour operators, as well as possess good knowledge of tourist sites including planning of tourism programs,” he said.
