SAUDI ARABIA: Turkey is guest of honour at this year's Riyadh Travel Fair where various countries are vying to attract tourists from the oil rich Gulf region.

Record ID: 188982

  • Title: SAUDI ARABIA: Turkey is guest of honour at this year's Riyadh Travel Fair where various countries are vying to attract tourists from the oil rich Gulf region.
  • Date: 17th May 2012
  • Summary: TUNISIAN AMBASSADOR AND TUNISIAN TOURISM OFFICIALS TALKING (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) NAJIB MUNEEF, TUNISIAN AMBASSADOR TO RIYADH, SAYING: "We extend an invitation to Saudi families, to Saudi tourists and to Gulf tourists generally to visit Tunisia, Tunisia with its hospitable and open people, Tunisia, which opens its arms to its brothers in the Gulf." SAUDI WOMEN PICKING UP PAMPHLETS FROM TRAVEL AGENT (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) MOSA ABDUL RAHMAN, VISITOR, SAYING: "The fair helped us learn many things about countries such as Tunisia, Turkey, East Asia and Europe. I have benefited greatly. In the past, we used to travel and we did not know much about it (the countries). But now, we have came to the fair and we can take advantage of the offers and reduced prices." 'INDIA' EXHIBIT VISITORS AT EAST ASIA SECTION PICTURES OF TOURIST SIGHTS IN INDIA, MALAYSIA AND TURKEY
  • Embargoed: 1st June 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Saudi Arabia
  • Country: Saudi Arabia
  • Topics: Business,International Relations,Transport
  • Reuters ID: LVAACTDUKEP268ISB4N219WZV48W
  • Story Text: As "Arab Spring" turmoil has scared visitors away from traditional holiday resorts in the Middle East and North Africa, other destinations are competing to attract the region's tourists.
    At the Riyadh Travel Fair in Saudi Arabia this week, special guest Turkey was busy promoting the Black Sea Region to potential visitors.
    But some remained unconvinced.
    "I have visited East Asia and Europe, but I have not thought of visiting Turkey because I calculate things in a financial way, and I found that prices in Turkey are close to prices in Europe. So If I have to chose, I would chose Europe," said Majed al-Shwaish.
    Opposing forces are pulling at Turkey's tourism sector. Unrest in Egypt and Tunisia has turned many tourists in the direction of Turkey over the past year. But at the same time, thirteen months of unrest in neighbouring Syria have hurt its tourism sector. Turkey therefore expects visitor numbers to remain stable in 2012 at more than 30 million.
    Turkey's cultural and tourism attaché at the embassy in Riyadh said Ankara wanted to boost the number of visitors from Saudi Arabia as the country seeks to reduce its reliance on beach-based mass tourism and attract higher value visitors.
    "Last year, around 120,000 Saudis visited Turkey for tourism, and this number is very good, but we are more ambitious than that," said Hussein Is.
    Turkey saw a sharp rise in visitor numbers from Syria and other Arab nations after lifting visa requirements for many countries in the region in 2009.
    But with violence gripping Syria and people adjusting to life after revolution elsewhere, the numbers coming from the Middle East have dropped.
    "Tourism income is important for Turkey, and our goal is to raise it further. Last year, around 28 million people visited Turkey and the economic return from this was of about 26 billion dollars," said Is.
    In the first two months of 2012, the total number of foreign visitors to Turkey was 1.98 million people, down 3.7 percent from the same period last year Tunisia is one of the other countries represented at the fair. And after a year of revolutionary turmoil in the North African country that saw tourists flee the Mediterranean resorts in droves, Tunis hopes 2012 will mark the start of recovery in a sector that used to account for almost seven percent of gross domestic product and employ 500,000 people.
    In 2011 fewer than five million people visited Tunisia and 25 five hotels closed, costing 3,500 jobs.
    To boost tourism's economic role, the government acknowledges it must diversify from beach tourism that draws the budget-conscious and attract long-haul visitors from Asia and America, as well as wealthier tourists from the Gulf.
    "We extend an invitation to Saudi families, to Saudi tourists and to Gulf tourists generally to visit Tunisia, Tunisia with its hospitable and open people, Tunisia, which opens its arms to its brothers in the Gulf," said Tunisia's ambassador to Riyadh, Najib Muneef.
    As the summer season approaches, and Gulf residents look to escape the blistering desert heat at home, the competition is on to attract wealthy Arabs to regional resorts and provide a much-needed boost to the flagging tourist industry.
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