PRINCE SULTAN BIN SALMAN BIN ABDUL AZIZ AL SAUD Secretary General of the Supreme Commission for Tourism

“By looking from a wider perspective, we have realized that although tourism in Saudi Arabia is a large-scale activity, it is scattered, unorganized and unstructured. Our job is to structure the entire sector and make it into one industry rather than many separate activities,” says Prince Sultan Bin Salman Bin Abdul Aziz Al-Saud, Secretary General of the Supreme Commission for Tourism (SCT). As the first Arab astronaut, he can certainly speak authoritatively about wider perspectives.

Now in charge of boosting Saudi Arabia’s tourism sector, in a double bid to diversify the economy and to provide job opportunities for Saudis, the prince is applying his long-range vision to increasing current industry figures by 2020.

The aim is to promote additional regional tourism, partly for the two million Muslim pilgrims who visit Saudi Arabia’s holy cities each year, but mainly for locals, who are turning more and more to their own country as a holiday destination. “We are developing master plans for each of the regions, building up their individual identities to draw more visitors,” says the prince. “Our target and most important tourist is the Saudi Arabian resident.”

The opportunities for private sector investment are high. For a start, if projected internal tourist figures of 128 million are reached by 2020, the kingdom will need an extra 50,000 hotel rooms and 74,000 furnished units. Around 70 initiatives have been proposed so far, including the development of coastal resorts along the Red Sea and the creation of tourist centers in rural areas.