Business & Money | Saturday 6 February, 2016 6:03 am |

Under the aegis of Prince Mishal Bin Majid, governor of Jeddah, the mayor of Jeddah Hani Abu Ras inaugurated the sixth edition of the Jeddah International Tourism and Travel Exhibition at the Hilton hotel.

The exhibition, which will last for four days, is hosting 180 exhibitors from 18 countries with some countries showing up for the first time.

The countries displaying their touristic varieties for the first time include: Indonesia, South Africa, Seychelles and Bosnia.

Abu Ras noted that the municipality supports the tourism sector through organizing tourism events and putting up a new plan to create a culture of traveling by encouraging people to look for new destinations in order for them to widen their scope of knowledge after visiting new places and enjoy their travel.

The exhibition, he added, encourages investment and development of the tourism sector.

Maya Halfawi, the head of the organizing committee, noted that they have drawn up a new plan that would enable Saudi families to search for new destinations.

Halfawi noted that the exhibition is one the largest tourism exhibition in the Gulf region and it enhances Jeddah’s economic and tourism status.

She added that the tourism spending hit SR90 billion this year, indicting the high spending in general in this sector by Saudis.

Halfawi added that a large number of Saudis are now looking for new destinations and that is why we have opted to present a series of new destinations in their exhibition — thus catering to their tastes and wishes.

The general manager of the Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage (SCTNH) in Jeddah, Mohammad Al-Amri, noted that that the commission has taken number of decisions to support the tourism sector.

One of the major decision is that the body provides loans that might reach upto SR100 million to any investor wanting to invest in this sector, particularly that this sector provides large number of job opportunities to Saudis.