TBILISI: Saudi Minister of Tourism Ahmed Al-Khateeb emphasized on Friday the importance of connectivity, sustainability manpower and the challenges of “overtourism.”
He was speaking during the World Tourism Day celebrations in Tbilisi, Georgia, on Friday.
One of the main issues facing tourism, Al-Khateeb said, is sustainability, which is vital for the country’s economy, job creation and inclusion.
“We look at sustainability in Saudi Arabia from three angles: from social, economic and environmental perspectives,” he said.
“We were hit hard by COVID-19, especially small and medium enterprises, and we learned the hard way.”
Al-Khateeb hopes that the 80 percent of small and medium enterprises contributing to the Kingdom’s industry and the 45 percent of women working in the sector will not suffer due to any future crisis.
The minister stressed the importance of creating policies that would help smaller countries in the sector and at the same time protect their nature and heritage.
The minister also highlighted the importance of environmental sustainability and how Saudi Arabia has established the well-funded Global Tourism Sustainability Center.
He said: “Eighty percent of people in the workforce in our industry are youth. We need to hire the youth.”
According to Al-Khateeb, the international tourism industry accounts for about 10 percent of the global economy and is expected to increase to about 20 percent by 2032.
“In 2019, tourism used to represent only 3 percent of Saudi economy. Today, it has reached 5 percent. And our target is to make it reach 10 percent by 2030,” he said.
“Last year, we received 27 million international arrivals to Saudi Arabia. In 2019, they were only 12 million.”
Saudi tourism minister highlights challenges facing sector
https://arab.news/v7f3x
Saudi tourism minister highlights challenges facing sector
- One of the main issues facing tourism, Al-Khateeb said, is sustainability, which is vital for the country’s economy, job creation and inclusion
- “We look at sustainability in Saudi Arabia from three angles: from social, economic and environmental perspectives”
Young photographer highlights Qatif’s natural springs
RIYADH: Young photographer Redha Al-Hammad is documenting the fading natural springs of Qatif, a landscape shaped by water for thousands of years, before their stories disappear.
His new project, “O Breaker of the Louz,” captures the cultural memory surrounding the springs that once sustained one of the oldest settlements in the Arabian Peninsula.
Alhammad, a 20-year-old visual artist from Qatif and student at the American University of Sharjah, developed the project to preserve his hometown’s identity and share its untold narratives.
Qatif’s springs once fueled its agricultural prosperity, nourished date-palm droves, supported early communities, and served as fathering spaces for trade, social life and storytelling. Today, only one spring — Ayn Al-Labbani — still flows.
With limited written research available, Al-Hammad relied on oral histories from relatives and community elders.
“The good thing about being from a small city is that everyone knows everyone,” he told Arab News. “The stories that we hear … that our parents and our older family members tell us … a lot of the time they can kind of … get drowned out.”
One of his key sources was Abdulrasul Al-Gheryafi, an English teacher and local historian who grew up swimming in the springs and has long studied their disappearance. His firsthand accounts shaped the project and provided the folktale that inspired its title.
Al-Hammad began photographing at Ayn Al-Labbani, where locals still gather. He initially “had no idea” what the work would become until Al-Gheryafi shared the tale of a knight who encountered a mysterious voice while at a spring. The project became centered on the idea that springs are more than water sources; they are magical spaces embedded with communal memory and identity.
Al-Hammad wrote a poem based on the story to accompany the images and express what photography alone could not.
What started out as field notes for his research naturally formed as poetic lines, which luckily earned the seal of approval from poet, friend and collaborator Dalia Mustafa.
“Seeing her develop as a writer as well, that helped me come to terms with what poetry could be within the context of photographic work,” he said.
The project blends documentary photography with lyrical elements, a technique Al-Hammad first explored in “Mahanet” (“Did you not yearn for me?”), created with Mustafa during the Jameel Arts Centre Youth Assembly.
Told through low-contrast, dreamlike images, “Mahanet” maps memories, grief and changing landscapes in Qatif.
“I kind of recreated this experience that I had with my dad whenever I would go back home and he would drive me around,” Al-Hammad said, recounting how his father would explain how a sea once existed where there is now a residential area, or which streets were once fields of palm trees.
His second project, “L3eeb” (“Player”), developed under the Kingdom Photography Award, examines the role of football in transforming overlooked spaces into communal “third spaces” for Saudi youth.
Al-Hammad was mentored by photographer, visual artist and photo book publisher Roi Saade, whose guidance he describes as invaluable: “It fit perfectly, the pairing, because he works in kind of the same realm of narrative-based work. And he was with me every step of the way.
“The Kingdom Photography Award program is very important for people like me who are at the early stages of their artistic journey and have something to say, would definitely benefit from having a platform and … the kind of guidance and mentorship that the professionals around me provided.”
All Al-Hammad’s work centers on his hometown, Qatif. Initially, his photography was personal, helping him reconnect with home after years abroad. Over time, he expanded his focus to share Qatif’s culture and heritage with wider audiences, emphasizing the region has as rich and vibrant a voice as other parts of the Kingdom.
Al-Hammad and Mustafa plan to turn “Mahanet” into a book next year, continuing their collaboration.
Citing Saudi Arabia’s rich cultural diversity, Al-Hammad hopes similar opportunities expand to other artistic mediums. Through his work, he seeks to inspire others to document their communities, preserve local heritage and contribute to a broader understanding of the Kingdom’s identity.
