Saudi Arabia's total income from domestic tourism is forecasted to reach SR73.3 billion in 2010 and SR101.3 billion in 2020, the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA) said in its recent report. Dr. Ahmed Al-Khalifa, SAMA secretary-general said at the Saudi Travel & Tourism Investment Market (STTIM) forum that tourism accounted for 3 percent of the Kingdom's GDP in 2006. He added that his agency recently issued its annual report which gathers information on the number of trips, hotel occupancy rates and total sector income in addition to comparative statistics with other GCC countries. Al-Khalifa further said more than 342,000 employees are working in tourism sector in the Kingdom in areas related to hotels, resorts, furnished apartments, cafes, travel agencies, transportation and entertainment. “The number of employees working in hotels and resorts reached 47,000 employees, 21 percent of them being Saudis. While employees working in furnished apartments reached 26,000, 19 percent of them are Saudis.” Dr. Mohamed Al-Ahmed, general director of Research and Tourism Information (MAS), affiliated with STTIM, talked about the Saudi Tourism Satellite Accounting (TSA) model, which tracks travel and tourism's economic contribution, The TSA was adopted in 2001 by the United Nations Statistical Commission. “The TSA provides a methodology that is internationally approved and includes measurement of expenditure on tourism by domestic and international tourists. It also tracks the size of the industry, including its contribution to GDP and employment.” He noted that the commission completed its 2005 TSA tracking which revealed that the total expenditure on domestic tourism reached SR57.8 billion, of which SR35.5 billion on the local tourism and SR22.2 billion on foreign tourism. The sector's contribution amounted to SR36.4 billion, of which SR10.1 billion on was spent on wages. The operating surplus and mixed income reached SR26.3 billion in 2005. The TSA in 2005 noted that the added value of tourism sector in the Kingdom reached 3.1 percent of GDP, and 6.4 percent of the non-oil GDP. The number of employees working in tourism sector reached 314,000 employees representing 5.2 percent of the total labor force in the Kingdom for both the public and private sectors. Saudis represent 15 percent of the total workforce in the industry. __
