Riyadh – Asdaf News:
The World Tourism Day 2023 kicked off in Riyadh, today under the theme “Tourism and Green Investment” and with more than 500 government representatives, tourism industry leaders, and experts from 120 countries attended to discuss the most important issues pertaining to the tourism industry and to promote growth, sustainability, and interdependence among peoples.
In his speech at the opening ceremony, Minister of Tourism Ahmed bin Aqil Al-Khateeb emphasized how important it is for Saudi Arabia to host World Tourism Day in Riyadh because tourism is one of the most significant economic sectors in the world because it employs one in ten people worldwide, provides a living for hundreds of millions of people, and can even make up more than 20% of the GDP in some nations.
The minister spoke about the sector’s expansion, the rise in visitor numbers, and how tourism has developed into a global business. In 1970, travel and tourism accounted for less than 3% of the world’s GDP. The industry will contribute 10% of the world’s GDP and is now making a good recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. From 118 million in the early 1970s to roughly 1.5 billion in 2019, the number of passengers surged by 700%.
He spoke to the significance of opening up new vistas for tourism and assisting small countries in realising their objectives through investments when he emphasised the importance of cooperation among nations to achieve success and growth in the sector in a more balanced and fair manner.
The minister noted that if countries can unite regionally and even globally, the opportunities in the sector can double, and all can help build bridges among countries and the public and private sectors.
Al-Khateeb emphasised that the government of the Kingdom has allowed foreign investment in the tourism industry and assisted the private sector in gaining access to international finance to construct facilities that tourists in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia expect and require.
