The Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities (SCTA) is carrying out training courses for the youth to help protect the country's archeological sites and create a generation that can benefit from its country's heritage, Muhsin Al-Qarni, an official of the SCTA, told Okaz/Saudi Gazette. Several trainees started their investments with very small amounts of money, but now they own establishments and manage projects worth millions of riyals, and this is what the SCTA is striving for, he said. The program includes a practical training course, held in a national museum in Taif, on the use of local materials such as masonry and mud in construction, Al-Qarni said. The SCTA created the courses to enable the society, especially the youth, to benefit from their culture and the traditional sites, and provide training in how to build with local material, he said. This creates more job opportunities, he added. The youths' presence and enthusiasm was impressive; they were attracted because the training is practical and not just theoretical, he added. The SCTA has also brought teachers and engineers from within the Kingdom and abroad to provide field training, Al-Qarni said. During a lecture he gave to the trainees, Al-Qarni listed the numerous damaged sites in Taif Governorate, including palaces and castles. If these palaces and castles were protected, the owners would have made big profits because these sites are tourist attractions, like those in any city in the world that safeguards its historic sites and the glory of its forefathers, he said. Al-Qarni stressed that nobody can imagine the profit that can be earned by rebuilding these sites and converting them into hotels that attract many tourists. Taif has something special about its historical sites, provided they are rehabilitated and renovated, he said. __
