Saudi Gazette report

JEDDAH – Emir of Makkah and Adviser to Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Prince Khaled Al-Faisal has instructed the constitution of a task force to execute tourism, entertainment and economic projects in Al-Hada and Al-Shafa mountains in Taif within the government's efforts to develop the southern summer resort.

The team will work under Deputy Emir of Makkah Prince Abdullah Bin Bandar and will include a number of officials from various concerned ministries.

The prince ordered the formation of the task force during the eighth meeting of the Supreme Committee for the Development of Taif on Monday.

Prince Sultan Bin Salman, chairman of the Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage, attended the meeting.

Prince Khaled underlined the importance of the collective and serious work to develop Taif and said the region was witnessing a number of development projects, including the "New Taif" for which the government has allocated land and established basic infrastructure.

The meeting discussed the components of the project focusing on three major sectors — economic development, tourism and agriculture.

"The project will preserve the natural habitat of the region with a view to creating a mountain resort with all the beauty of the countryside," he said.

The prince said the project would be implemented in partnership with a number of developers and investors who have enough experience in developing summer resorts, entertainment cities and tourist activities.

As part of its bid to diversify the national economy, Saudi Arabia aims to boost its tourism industry. The government has allocated billions of riyals to preserve heritage sites and pre-Islamic monuments across the country.

The Kingdom hopes reviving such sites would bolster national identity by attracting tourists — local and foreign — as part of a bid to diversify the economy. Reforms aim to lift total tourism spending to $46.6 billion in 2020 from $27.9 billion in 2015.

"National heritage wasn't an easy trip, to get people to reflect and go back, especially the antiquities. All the discussions that were about antiquity — this is not Islamic, this is Islamic — this is I think behind us now," said Prince Sultan Bin Salman, head of the Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage (SCTH).

The 62-year-old prince told Reuters in a recent interview about ongoing cooperation with senior Islamic scholars including bimonthly discussions with the Grand Mufti about the latest "discoveries".

These include Al-Ahsa, one of the world's largest natural agricultural oases, which became the country's fifth UNESCO World Heritage site last month.

In addition to fresh- and hot-water springs and vast tracks of date palms, the 10,000-hectare region holds archaeological sites dating to the Neolithic period.

Another UNESCO site, Madain Saleh, is a 2,000-year-old city carved into the rocks of the northern desert by the Nabateans, the pre-Islamic Arab civilization that also built Petra in neighboring Jordan. It is now the center of a multi-billion dollar tourism project the authorities are developing with French support.

"I believe you cannot understand Islam as a great religion if you are dismissing completely what happened before Islam," Prince Sultan said.

"That's why we focused on hundreds of pre-Islamic sites, pre-history — because this is a story that cannot be understood without being looked at in its own holistic and complete sense."

He said up to 150 important sites had been intentionally destroyed or lost to urban development before the government adopted its new policy of protecting pre-Islamic monuments. SCTH is dispersing soft loans to municipalities to develop heritage locations and preparing another 10 sites for UNESCO recognition.