Introduction
Tourism has many definitions, which include traveling for pleasure purposes. Tourism, according to World Tourism Organization, is defined visiting and staying places away from our normal environment for a period exceeding one year for leisure or other business purposes. Tourism can be either domestic or international where implications are on both the host and source countries. Today, tourism is among the major sources of revenue for most countries and has a great impact on the economic growth and development of nations. The hospitality services, transport services, entertainment venues, as well as goods bought by tourists are among the sectors that benefit significantly from tourism.
This particular paper will review tourism in Saudi Arabia where religious pilgrimages attract many tourists in the country where an approximated 14.3 million tourists visited the country in 2012 according to the data provided by World Bank hence. Religious tourism is one of the largest sources that earn Saudi Arabia a higher return on revenue. During Mecca, an estimated three million pilgrims visit the country, during Ramadan an approximated two million visitors are received and during Umrah, and this forms the largest number of visitors where four million tourists visit the country. The Saudi Arabian kingdom has in many instances failed to engage itself in talks relating climate changes and this has adversely affected the tourism sector.
The study of this paper will lay emphasis on implementing sustainable development in the hospitality industry in Saudi Arabia, development of public awareness and different challenges and difficulties Saudi Arabia, faces. Firstly, the significance of this study is to look into the tourism industry, as the world is no longer dependent on soil for its wealth. Secondly, the increasing number of tourists in Saudi Arabia results in the creation of employment opportunities especially in the service hence reduces the unemployment rate. Lastly, the tourism industry in Saudi Arabia has over many years continued to increase GDP in the economy that comes from revenue. Saudi Gazette outlines, “to increase our capacity to welcome Umrah visitors from 8 million to 30 million every year.
To more than double the number of Saudi heritage sites registered with UNESCO (Saudi Gazette, 2016, n.p.).”
Tourism in Saudi Arabia: An Overview
The first literature review of Aldosari focuses on the causes of unemployment. The country had immense infrastructure contracts that created more job opportunities and the government sought labor from other countries; they hired international contractors hence resulting in an increase in the rate of unemployment in Saudi Arabia. The article was trying to investigate the impact of Nitaqat policies as well as the causation about the tourism and hospitality industry as the main source of high growth employment opportunities.
In the article by Adam Taylor, he recognizes tourism as the second most significant economic sector, which predicts an increase in investment in the tourism sector from $8 billion to around $46 billion by the end of 2020 as outlined in its blueprint. Adam argues, “The Vision 2030 plan calls for large coastal areas to be given over to tourism projects and for new investment in museums and historic sites to create attractions of the highest international standards” (Taylor, 2016, n.p.). However, the Saudi Arabian tourism has been faced with challenges, and this is according to the statistics provided by the World Bank. The article tries to examine the causes of the decline in the number of tourists in Saudi Arabia despite the many Islamic sites in the country. Poor infrastructure in the country is one of the key factors that have pulled down the efforts to attract a wide range of tourists outside Medina and Mecca. The tourism industry in Saudi Arabia is also lagging behind due to lack of Jewish and Christian sites that could increase the number of visitors in the country. The tourism sector needs to revision to sustain the tourism and hospitality industry, which is a vital source of revenue in the country.
Concerning Tourism Sustainability: Conclusions on Various Articles
Saudi Commission for Tourism & Antiquities’ has a role in implementing initiatives that help improve the level of tourism in Saudi Arabia. The initiatives of the commission will have positive effects on the cultural, social and environment of the country. A national development strategy needs development through an assessment was done of the resources in the kingdom, the target market regarding the current and future tourism activities. The Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities policies will be of great benefit to the researchers, investors, operators, international establishment, as well as the public sector. The main objectives of developing a sustainable tourism sector are to reduce the problem of unemployment in the kingdom by searching for job opportunities to cater for the unemployed population in Saudi Arabia. The tourism strategies aim at improving and sustaining domestic workers. As a result, enhancing economic and social stability in the kingdom is paramount. The author (p.29) contends that, “achieve economic benefits as a result of employing a large number of nation as well as limiting negative results and lost economic opportunity as a result of the money transfers by expatriates”.
During his, visit Hubbard reports that “For now, the priority is encouraging Saudis to visit their own country. Tourist visas are not imminent, but for the intrepid tourist like me who gets in for other reasons (in my case a conference, as I report on the region) and follows the rules, there is the exhilaration of having awe-inspiring sites virtually to yourself (Hubbard, 2016, n.p.). Countries like Jordan, United Arab Emirates, and Egypt have made tourism one of the strongest pillars of economic growth and development, which is not the case for Saudi Arabia considering it as the mother of faith to the Muslim religion and a residence to the holiest sites. The kingdom has experienced very low returns from tourists since tourists from other religions might behave contrary to their religious beliefs and hence they see no need to lure tourists. However, officials in charge of tourism in the Kingdom report that the country is slowly opening up, and this is mainly through the provision of interest-free loans to any individuals or corporations who wish to invest in tourism.
The article by Adam also holds similar thoughts concerning the level of tourism in Saudi Arabia where they bring forth that “For now, the priority is encouraging Saudis to visit their country. Tourist visas are not imminent, but for the intrepid tourist like me who gets in for other reasons (in my case a conference, as I report on the region) and follows the rules, there is the exhilaration of having awe-inspiring sites virtually to yourself (Taylor, 2016, n.p.).
Significant Areas of Study
Nouman in his article argues that Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities in collaboration with the Ministry of Labor works hard to assess the needs of the tourism industry and ways to solve them. The measures will contribute to ‘Saudization’ drive and this is meant to increase the labor force at the local level. Currently, most of the projects are launching that aim at increasing the Saudi nationals in the tourism and industry of 56 ongoing projects. The tourism industry faces inadequate skilled personnel whereby the kingdom opts to outsource hence Nouman concludes, “Efforts are on to developing and delivering training programs that meet the demand of the labor market and are also in line with the international standards (Nouman, 2015, n.p.). A further plan is underway that is meant to train and encourage 250,000 young professional to join the tourism and hospitality industry, therefore, promoting career development paths.
The Saudi Arabian vision 2030 outlines that the government funds directs at improving the non-oil sources of income and the tourism sector. The government aims at adopting a new economic reality, and the hospitality industry is the main target. The private universities and colleges come up with new programs of helping learners acquire the required skills and knowledge that will be relevant in the hospitality sector. DeNicola presents a direct relationship between tourism and climate. The author reiterates, “International, multidisciplinary cooperation and collaboration will be needed to promote tourism global water security and to protect human health, particularly in low-income countries that do not have the resources necessary to adapt on their own (DeNicola, Carpenter, Kwaja, Siddique, & Aburizaiza, 2015, pp. 347).
Various articles and research papers reveal the idea of the writers and their stand regarding the current state of the tourism in Saudi Arabia. Most writers blame the Saudi Arabian government for their failure in the role of attracting new tourist investors in the country. In his article Noel states, “Islam began in western Arabia with the preaching of Prophet Muhammad (ca. 570–632 CE) and has since spread through expansion, economic trade, missionaries, and migration” (Swazo, 2010, n.p.). That the country has many historical and Islamic religious sites allows who possess the Islamic religion. The conservative nature of the Muslims possesses a great barrier to visitors from the Western countries. However, in an article by Hubbard, the Saudi Arabian citizens are portrayed as friendly and disarming and hence aid in protecting the image of the Arabian people to the visitors. Many policies need implementation on people to remove the existing barriers of preventing the local people from interacting with other religions. The result of interaction will lead to an increase in the number of both domestic and international tourists who visit the country especially in periods where the Muslims are not performing their spiritual obligation. Creation of job opportunities for the local people will emerge, reserves will increase, and as a result, economic growth and developments are likely to occur (Hubbard, 2016, p. 38).
Assumptions
Some basic assumptions have accompanied articles written from various schools of thoughts concerning the issue of tourism sustainability. One basic assumption on tourism sustainability is that authors have always underestimated the negative impacts linked to continuity in tourism. In other words, this particularly means that more efforts target developing and ensuring the continuity of the tourism and hospitality industry instead of putting more focus on the productive results of tourism. Secondly, another basic assumption that many authors make is that they analyze tourism activities as the sole sector in the economy. Finally, authors and researchers argue that the tourism sector in Saudi Arabia is independent and can sustain itself, and more so many communities seek tourism as their sole source when it comes to sustainable development (Aldosari, 2013, pp. 75).
Positive implications
Different authors have given different views regarding the impact of tourism when the Saudi Arabian government adopts changes that are meant to improve the productivity of the hospitality sector. One of the changes that have altered is the improvements in the infrastructure of all cities in the Kingdom that has led to the creation of more job opportunities. The article by Sahoo gives a review of the positive impact of tourism where he reiterates, “The kingdom’s tourism industry, which is dominated by pilgrims and business travelers, has experienced a rise in religious tourists after the visa policy was relaxed. Also, a large number of Saudis are traveling domestically (Sahoo, 2014, n.p.).”
There an upward developing pressure on the tourism industry now and then due to the increasing demand for quality services from the sector. An estimated 2 million in the Airlines of Saudi Arabia were losing out due to the inability of the country to sustain the capacity. The Saudi Gazette reports, “We are well aware that the cultural and entertainment opportunities currently available do not reflect the rising aspirations of our citizens and residents, nor are they in harmony with our prosperous economy (Saudi Gazette, 2016, n.p.).” The government is already establishing additional airports to host more visitors whereas the King Khaled Airport is under renovation, which is expected to increase visitors to an estimated 35 million. However, the government should take the initiative in developing policies that will boost the level of tourism in Saudi Arabia. Other impacts such as cultural exchange, national heritage, and preservations of the religious sites are among other benefits attached to implementing sustainability tourism. In an article by Henderson, the writer demonstrates the relationship between religion and tourism the writer implies that “religion and tourism have a close relationship where the former motivates travel and is a source of assorted visitor attractions” (Henderson, 2011, pp. 524).
The government of Saudi Arabia has however come up with tasks that are meant to Saudize job vacancies in the tourism sector as well as submitting reports on a periodic basis regarding the all the activities that take place in the hospitality industry and record any slight improvements realized. Educating the community by creating awareness about the role and significance on an individual level helps them appreciate domestic tourism. Provincial bodies in the country aid in promoting operational and development plans that are meant to monitor tourism development activities. A remarkable increase in the tourism investor has increased because of government efforts of trying to reconcile the public and private sector. Additionally, foreign reserves have been enabled as the government grants licenses to travel agencies, tour operators, as well as accommodation facilities. Recent research reveals that about 70% of the Saudi Arabian have opted to embrace domestic tourism as a result promoting the cultural heritage. The rate of unemployment in Saudi Arabia by 2013 fell from 12 % to 11.5 by the end of 2013 because of tourism.
Negative Implications
However, if the tourism industry fails make provisions, it will experience negative implications to the social, political, and economic environment. Henderson (2011) highlights the negative effects result due to an increase in the number of tourists visiting the country annually. Import and export leakages will occur when the visitors demand high quality goods and services that Saudi Arabia cannot be able to cater for, and it, therefore, opts to import from other countries. Export leakages will occur in the country where the government sought financing from outside, and therefore the sponsors take a large number of profits. Unexpected influx of extra tourists to a number of Arab countries at the expense of other Arab countries that lost the boom in tourism, which requires further attempts to deal with this increase, otherwise, entailed certain problems. (SCTA, 2009, p. 16)
The creation of character job will be brought about by peak seasons in the economy. Most tourism related jobs often occur during Mecca, and this creates job insecurities as people train and the number of visitors determines waits for the peak season with no guarantee as job opportunities. The Saudi Arabia depends on income as the second source of its revenue and there and a lot of pressure is put on the workers of the tourism for better performance. Diversifying economies, which have a variety of revenue sources, tend to grow and develop at a higher rate compared to countries that depend solely on one sector. Research by many authors reveals that proposed infrastructure and the many undergoing projects to improve tourism will cost the Saudi Arabian government dearly. Finally, an increase in demand for basic goods and services by the tourists will eventually hike the prices for local commodities, and hence the cost of living in the households is expected to rise especially to the workers whose income does not increase proportionately (International Monetary Fund, 2014, p. 07).
Conclusion
Concisely, the government has collaborated with the private sector in its efforts of creating newer opportunities and jobs in the tourism industry. Sasoo (2014) argues, “The high level of liquidity and the excellent return potential are also attracting strong private sector interest in tourism investments in the country now (Sasoo, 2014, n.p.).” Efforts are underway in initiating and implementing training programs that are meant to educate the public on the importance of appreciating domestic tourism, which will remarkably increase sustainability in the tourism and hospitality sector in Saudi Arabia. Adoption of new policies and alternatives will make tourism one of the most productive sectors of the Saudi Arabian economy.
References
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