DUBAI: Saudi Arabia’s Royal Commission for Al-Ula signed an agreement of cooperation with France on Tuesday as part of an ambitious development project within the tourism and cultural sector.
The agreement reflects the Kingdom’s commitment to protect and promote world heritage, sustain the tourism and cultural sector with international partners, and reinforce cooperation through concrete actions and structured projects.
Home to dramatic desert landscapes, rock formations and some of the Middle East’s most significant ancient sites, including those built by Lihyanite and Nabataean civilisations of the first millennium BCE, Al-Ula is concidered a wonder of the ancient Arabian world. In northwest Saudi Arabia, Al-Ula has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2008.
As one of the Kingdom’s primary cultural development projects, both nations will embark on a collaborative project to planning and articulating development the historical sites of Al-Ula and the necessary infrastructure for tourism in the context of a sensitive transformation of the region.
The agreement was signed in the presence of Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman and French President Emmanuel Macron as well as the Al-Ula governor, the French special envoy to Al-Ula and France’s foreign minister.
