Jeddah boosts investments in tourism infrastructure

More than 2,800 new hotel rooms will be built as a result of 11 projects under way with international investments, according to Mohammad bin Abdullah Al-Omari, director general of the Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage of Makkah.
He said that the commission was expecting that during the current year 2016, spending in the local tourism sector by local and foreign tourists would be SR144.3 billion, compared with SR86.4 billion spent in tourism abroad. 
He said this has been the direction of Prince Sultan bin Salman, chairman of the commission, to support investors and make the best international and local hotels available in the tourism industry here. He said that the tourism industry of the Kingdom was the second biggest sector in terms of attracting people to focus on strategies and visions to create economic sectors away from oil resources which have dominated the economy for a long time. He said that Jeddah attracts 11 percent of the total spending of local and foreign tourists in the Kingdom.
Al-Omari said that statistics indicated that the future of the local tourism industry was promising, particularly in Jeddah. He said that during 2015, Jeddah had a growth of local tourism of 21 percent over 2014. The city attracts 29 percent of domestic tourism for Makkah.
According to an assessment, it was expected that during 2016, local tourism spending would be SR53.5 billion and SR90.8 billion from inbound foreign tourists.
He said that it is clear that in the Kingdom there were new developmental gateways which need to be taken care of along with tourism. This is what the commission wanted to do in view of Vision 2030.