JEDDAH — Dubai, Turkey and Malaysia are the three most attractive tourist spots for the Saudis particularly during the short school vacations, according to tourism experts who asked the Kingdom to avail itself of the political turbulence abroad to boost its internal tourism. The experts said the three favorable spots are designing special tourist programs to lure the Saudis and other GCC tourists especially during short vacations. They said the Saudi tourist spending abroad has crossed the SR40 billion mark and is steadily increasing year after year. According to them, the internal tourism is facing a number of challenges including the high prices of hotels and furnished apartments, the substandard services, the lack of attractive entertainment programs and the stereotype tourist festivals. The statistics of the Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage (SCTH) shwos Saudi and GCC tourists last year spent more than SR104 billion on domestic tourism, which represented about 5 percent of the Kingdom's GDP. It said tourism is one of the top sectors on which the government relies on the diversification of its sources of income with the view of reducing dependence on the depleting oil. Khaled Al-Aboud, member of the tourism committee of the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI), believes that the Kingdom should benefit from the political disturbances in some of the countries that used to attract Saudi tourists to keep them inside. He referred to the previous year's revenues generated by local tourism and said if it received good attention, the domestic tourism could be a good source of revenue to the Kingdom. Aboud regretted that the internal tourism potentials were not properly utilized and said not more than 10 percent of the local tourist components were utilized. "This is largely due to the weak tourist facilities, substandard services and the difficulty of reaching a number of local tourist attractions," he said. Khaled Bawazeer, a tourism expert, pointed to the high prices in the tourist places and said this was due to the absence of competition in the sector. He called for the establishment of a special fund to finance tourism projects. Bawazeer also called for solving the problem of air travel to the local tourism spots and said tourists find difficulties in reaching a number of attractive locations. He also called for promoting the local tourist festivals, which have been tedious and uninteresting in the past.
