Okaz/Saudi Gazette

RIYADH — The Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage (SCTH) has announced that it will train Saudi male and female graduates in 11 internationally recognized foreign languages to work as tourist guides.

The training program will be carried out in 14 cities.

The SCTH has made it conditional that applicants should be 21 years of age and fluent in at least one language like Hindi, Chinese, Mandarin, Portuguese, German, English, French, Spanish, Russian and Malay.

The training courses will be carried out by the National Center for Tourist Human Resources Development (Takamul).

Qualified professional tourist guides will be in high demand with increased focus on the Saudi tourism industry.

International tourists are expected to visit the Kingdom with the launch of e-visa facility.

Saudi Arabia is also planning to offer visa-free access to its tourism sites to visitors from the US, Europe, Japan and China.

The plan will be finalized in the coming months and announced by the end of the year, official sources were quoted as saying in a section of the press.

Visitors from the United States, Europe, Japan and China will be allowed to visit tourism sites either without the need of a visa or will be issued visas on arrival in the Kingdom, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The initiative is seen as an important step toward liberalizing the economy in keeping with the Kingdom’s Vision 2030. It is aimed at raising total tourism spending in the Kingdom — by local citizens as well as foreigners — to $46.6 billion by 2020 from $27.9 billion in 2015, sources said.

Last year e-visas were issued through Sharek e-visa platform, which allowed international motor racing fans to travel to the Kingdom for the Dec. 15 Formula E race. Travelers who bought a ticket for the race obtained a 14-day visa for SR640, the equivalent of approximately $170.