JEDDAH — Arab organizations concerned with security and tourism are expected to put together a joint strategy for security training with the cooperation of Prince Naif University for Security Sciences, according to Bandar Al-Fuhaid, president of the Arab Tourism Organization (ATO).
He said the strategic goal was to attract 93.3 million tourists to the region by 2023.
According to ATO figures, the spending of tourists in the region have reached $76 million, while the contribution of the tourism industry to the GDP of Arab states has hit $191 billion.
The Arab states are jointly working on enhancing the volume of bilateral tourism in the region, said Al-Fuhaid, especially because tourist traffic between Arab countries is very low, compared to Europe where 88 percent of tourists are from the continent itself.
Prince Naif University for Security Sciences in cooperation with the Arab Tourism Organization and under the support of Prince Sultan Bin Salman, president of the Supreme Commission for Tourism and National Heritage, will hold in Taif on Tuesday the first Forum for Tourism Safety. The event at Meridian Hotel will continue for three days.
Al-Fuhaid said over 200 officials from the security and tourism sectors in the Arab region will participate in the event. He said the forum is being held in exceptional circumstances that affected the tourism industry in the region.
He said tourism is crucial for the economies of the countries of the region and the forum will focus on ways to protect the sector by providing needed skills for risk management.
The forum will also focus on the best practices in safety and security inside and around tourism sites.
Other sessions will highlight the equipment and technologies used to enhance security.
The forum will also prepare a list of findings and recommendations, which will be presented to the councils of Arab ministers of security and tourism.
