Minister of Tourism Pays Visit to T. Development Fund

Minister of Tourism, who is also the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Tourism Development Fund, Ahmed Al-Khatib, visited the new headquarters of the Tourism Development Fund, at King Abdullah Financial District.

On arrival to the venue, he was received by the CEO of the Fund, Qusay Al-Fakhri, and a number of board members.

Then he was briefed on the achievements of the Fund during the current year, where about 20% of them were represented, in enabling quality tourism projects for investors from small and medium-sized companies, and 30% of the achievements, in untapped promising tourist areas, which will play role in the Saudi tourism scene and attract more investments, the near periods to come. Appreciating the achievements made by the fund, which formed a solid base for moving towards the objectives of the national tourism strategy, in terms of geographical distribution of projects, addressing gaps and activating investment opportunities, in order to provide an integrated experience for tourists, he explained that the fund has invested as much as SR2 billion of its capital to finance quality projects, in various sectors and tourist destinations, with a total value of nearly SR6 billion, SR4 billion of which came from the private sector.

That is a clear indication of the pivotal role of the fund, in activating the role of the private sector, in sustainable tourism development.

For his part, the CEO of the Fund, Al-Fakhri, praised the minister keenness to strengthen solidarity, among the tourism system entities, which would enhance the fund’s ability to enable private sector investments, in tourism, noting that the fund is cooperating with more than 235 private investors, to enable projects that are, in line with the strategy’s objectives.

National Tourism list is growing, in light of the rush of investors to take advantage of the expected boom, in the sector.

The projects enabled by the fund during the 18-month period ending on September 30, 2021, were distributed among 9 major tourist destinations in the Kingdom, and included the sectors of hotels and accommodation, tourist shopping, experiences and tourism activities, entertainment facilities and others, while the number of hotel rooms these projects will add is about 3,500 rooms.

These projects are expected to create about 21,000 jobs, over the three years, to come.

It is noteworthy that the Tourism Development Fund signed agreements with many local banks, aiming at delivering the fund’s services to the largest possible segment of investors, and enhancing support for them, by providing all financing options. These services are diversified to suit the needs of different and various investors, including direct financing, bank guarantees and joint financing with banks and financial institutions.