Speech of HRH Prince Sultan Bin Salman Bin Abdul Aziz

Speech of HRH Prince Sultan Bin Salman Bin Abdul Aziz Speech of HRH Prince Sultan Bin Salman Bin Abdul Aziz President of Saudi Commission for Tourism & Antiquities In the Opening Ceremony Of Saudi Travel & Tourism Investment Market (STTIM) April 12 to 16, 2009, Riyadh, KSA "His Highness Prince Sattam Bin Abdul Aziz Acting Amir of Riyadh, "The honorable present, ladies and gentlemen; Greetings, It is a great pleasure for me, on behalf the employees of the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities to extend sincere thanks and appreciations to His Highness Prince Salman Bin Abdul Aziz Amir of Riyadh for patronizing this forum. Also I would like to extend my sincere thanks to His Royal Highness Prince Sattam Bin Abdul Aziz Acting Amir of Riyadh who has conferred honor upon us by inaugurating this forum. The honorable present, The start of the second session of Saudi Travel & Tourism Investment Market of Saudi Arabia on this day is coinciding with the organization of the General Authority for Tourism and Antiquities, with which a beginning of a new phase of the development of national tourism was heralded. SCTA's new regulations have imposed many additional responsibilities and tasks on it, such as full supervision on antiquities and museums, architectural heritage, tourism accommodation, travel and tourism agencies, tour operators, tourist guides, and several tourism activities and services. Since then SCTA was keen for finalizing what has been approved by the government regarding National Tourism Development plan, besides restructuring these sectors in integrated and harmonized manner. Towards this end, SCTA has adopted methodology in line with the directives of the leadership of the country with an the approach in the overall development for the benefit of citizens at each location, based on the principles of partnership and integration with the regions and state institutions, the private sector and segments of society, and focuses on the resettlement of the national tourism development to attract people and investment. Confirming to the SCTA's concern towards restructuring and organizing this massive economical sector, SCTA has focused, during the past year, on a number of important programs and projects, the most significant of which were; , Comprehensive review for SCTA's plans and programs in the light of the new regulation. While new structure of SCTA must take into consideration main new sectors that have been added to it. Development of SCTA and its partners' capacity and qualifications regarding project and programs management. , Allowing provinces to play key role in tourism and museums development, thaccordingly, 12 Provincial Tourism Organizations (POTs) have been established across the country, in addition to 15 bodies specialized in tourism development. Besides 45 provincial offices for antiquities that their performance is being developed. Provincial tourism councils have formed a number of tourism development committees across municipalities that are rich with tourism potentials, such as Al Ghat, Al Ola, and Al Majm'a. These committees are observing execution of tourism development projects within these areas. SCTA has also provided required financial and technical support to these committees. , Continuous cooperation and coordination with the Ministry of Interior for the application of an integrated system of security procedures and programs to ensure the realization of the principle of "security first", so that tourism is not a burden or social security. This has included the implementation of a comprehensive project for the safety and security of tourism and a plan for risk management and exchange of information. In addition, training programs in the area of security in tourism, organized coordination between the areas of tourism in the area of security and protection of monuments, and operation of the electronic tourist visas for tourist groups in accordance with the selected controls with its headquarters in the Ministries of Interior and Foreign Affairs. , Promoting the program to activate the plan of tourism development on the Red Sea thdetermined by Council of Ministers on 16 June 2008 for developing a series of new tourism resorts and destinations in collaboration with Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs. , Complete negotiation stages with the main developer of Al Ager destination development project, as well as developing Al Thomama Park as integrated entertainment destinations of Riyadh region. In addition to prepare schemes for developing Al Hada, Al Shef'a and Okaz Souk at Al Taif municipality. , Opening ten centers of tourism investment services in a number of provinces for providing support to investors. Development of investment stimuli in the tourism accommodation sector, specialized accommodations as heritage hotels, ecotourism inns, rural rest houses, timeshare utilities, entertainment cities, diving centers, organizing tourism trips, events, and festivals, as well as investment in handicrafts and traditional industries, tourism transportations, and tourism guides services. , Start of issuing licenses and operational approvals for tourism professions, accommodation utilities, travel and tourism agencies and private museum. License are granted to 35 tourism trip organizers, 19 tourism guides, classifying and licensing more than 3,500 tourism accommodation utilities, 83 tourism and travel agencies running through 206 offices. , Working intensively for improving tourism accommodation utilities, raising their service and performance levels, developing and promoting tourism products. Development of procedures and measures for quality control of tourism services provided by these projects. Balancing between the prices and quality that will be in collaboration with relevant authorities. Taking into consideration that, Saudi citizen to whom SCTA seeks to deliver tourism service, nowadays he is no longer the same person that he was ten years ago, because his expectations and aspirations towards service quality level has massively expanded. That is what SCTA seeks to achieve through ensuring that the consumer receives high quality service at moderate prices. , Implementation of resettlement programs in the tourism and travel, accommodation utilities, and tourism attraction sectors. The program till now included 800 trainees in addition to resettlement of jobs in antiquities and museum sector, 49 programs for handicrafts trades, from which 760 participants benefited across 17 cities. Also a program for education and training missions comprised in its first phase 150 male and female students, setting professional standards of ten of tourism professions, that besides implementing profession awareness and training programs and customer service, till now has covered 25,000 participants. , Activation of programs in cooperation with universities, public and private educational and training institutions, as a result of which, the Faculty of Tourism and Antiquities in the University of King Saud, College of Tourism and Administrative Science in Um Al Qura'a University, specialized Institute for tourism training and development in King Abdul Aziz University are established. Also the foundation stones for establishing four specialized colleges of tourism have been laid in Riyadh, Al Madina, and Al Hafouf. Foundation stone of the college of tourism in Al Taif will be laid within next month as well as a number of specialized business incubators. , The Kingdom has been chosen by World Tourism Organization to be the regional center for capacity building in the field of tourism and tourism subaccount for Middle East region in light of the advanced level that is achieved by the Kingdom in this field. Received an award from the organization, "Ulysses" in the field of tourism innovation in government institutions. , Fixed and operated 20 electronic Tourist information center in a number of airports and major shopping centers, as well as other 80 tourism electronic centers within SCTA’s plan for tourism marketing. 95 signboards have been fixed for guiding to tourism destination sites. Distributed two million copies of maps and tourism guides. SCTA is also preparing for comprehensive information plan for developing information vision of antiquities and museums in order to make a quality shift in national awareness for dealing with national heritage and antiquities. , Implimented a number of important exploration trips to the international successful experiences for relevant municipal and provinces' officials in the field of tourism security, safety, human resources development, restoration and preserving urban heritage. , Started execution of the comprehensive plan for developing antiquities and museums sector in order to include many programs such as preservation of antiquities sites, development of heritage villages and sites, registering a number of tourism sites of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia into UNESCO World heritage list, upgrading centers of historical cities. Improve historical cities' centers, investment in the heritage buildings owned by the State. Settlement of expropriated urban heritage buildings that were owned by Saudi citizens due to the latest resolution of Saudi Cabinet, restoration of smuggled out archeological pieces of the Kingdom from abroad, conduction of large exhibitions inside and outside the Kingdom in collaboration with international museums for showcasing Saudi archeological masterpieces, among others. , Working for executing a plan for museums development, comprising of development of the National Museum in collaboration with the museum's Advisory Committee, to upgrade six existing regional museums, establishing five new museums, developing 14 heritage and historical buildings to be municipal museums, granting licenses for private museums as well as support their activities. Signing agreements between the National Museum and international museums. Establishing a set of specialized museums such as Dar Al Qurr'an Al Kareem (Holy Qurr'an House) at Al Madina, Huzam Palace at Jeddah, and Museum of Transport and the like. Requesting for integral national project for developing traditional industries and handicrafts, establishment of five permanent headquarters for artisans in addition to eight popular markets in collaboration with Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs. Also SCTA due to a Royal instruction has submitted to the government a number of draft regulations and important decisions for the development of tourism. Some of which are: Report of main requirements of National Tourism Development, study of efficient ways for funding governmental tourism development institutions for long-term which has been conducted in collaboration between Ministry of Economic and Planning and Ministry Finance. We hope that, during the next period, as the government has approved the main requirements for finalizing and developing this large economical sector the tourism will become one of the importance economic sectors that will create employment opportunities for Saudi citizens, and a true opportunity for growth and investment for the benefit of the homeland, in the light of our various human and natural potentials and resources, tourism distinguished locations, full services and modern infrastructure. As well as our ancient civilization heritage, the rich social and cultural heritage, a large domestic tourism market enjoying accelerated growth due to hospitable and recipient citizen towards tourism in his country. We are confident that, SCTA will be able to execute its assigned tasks due to the Royal support and instructions of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, His Crown Prince the Second Deputy of Prime Minister, and HRH the Second Deputy of Prime Minister and Minister of Interior "God Protect all of Them ". I reiterate my thanks and appreciation to the to your highness for your honorable patronage, also to express my appreciations and thanks to SCTA's partners in public and private sectors who have contributed by sponsorship or participation in this event. I hope success for all