06/11/2014
Director of Tourism and Antiquities Authority branch during the Tuesday Chamber meeting
The private sector is a key partner in raising the level of tourism in the Eastern Region
The General Director of the Saudi Commission for tourism and antiquities in the eastern region engineer Abdul Latif Albonyan stressed that tourism need to further development, adding that the sector needs more experience, technical support and marketing despite the experience gained from partnerships. Bunyan said during a Tuesday meeting in the East Chamber on Tuesday evening, November 4, 2014 in the Dammam-Branch attended by the Chairman Abdulrahman bin Saleh Al otaishan, the Branch continued to develop tourism projects along with partners who provide logistical, technical and marketing but the sector still needs a lot of support for larger roles to serve visitors to the region and improve the services provided to them. Albunyan appreciated during the meeting which was attended by the Secretary General of the Chamber Abdul Rahman bin Abdullah Alwabil and a number of Business the Chamber's role in many tourism projects in the region through the provision and support in several areas, citing the partnership with Action Aid which contributed significantly to the implementation of several projects that serve the objectives of the tourism in the region.
Albunyan said that the tourism sector in the region is growing pointing out that very encouraging investment in different areas, for example, accommodation and entertainment sector as the area developed, leap huge projects will join the service in the tourist accommodation sector, stressing that the hotel sector in the region has high rates with hotels licensed by 2014 approximately 101 Hotel, it is expected that the number of licenses until the end of this year to 112 hotels, indicating that the initial projections indicate the attainment the number of hotels in 2018 to 148 hotels licensed and noted that the growth in the number of housing units in the eastern region were 739 housing units, and expected to increase to 800 housing units by the end of 2016.
Bunyan said that the Branch is after major tasks including the coordination with the competent authorities and organization of tourism activities in the region and to support the development of tourism through exhibitions, conferences and crafts and industries, exploration and implications in addition to the catalog. Bunyan said that Eastern region through the stats come second in the list of favorite zones after Mecca where tourists have visited about 7 million tourists each year, noting that the real jump accompanied development in the areas of Corniche in the various governorates of the region, most notably Al Khobar, Dammam and Jubail and RAS tanura and others.
He reviewed the structure of development projects that serve the tourism sector in the region, adding that there are many ideas and projects that the private sector can participate and that would raise the level of tourism as the region continued visits within and outside the Kingdom, noting that Eastern has more than 7,000 archeological site of 400 sites reflect the depth of history and cultural tourism which is famous for its region. At the end of the meeting the Chairman honored the Eastern Chamber meeting guest Director General Commission for tourism and antiquities in the area engineer Abdul Latif Albunyan with Memorial shield.
