Saudi Gazette report

RIYADH — Deputy Minister of Tourism Princess Haifa bint Mohammed has launched a comprehensive institutional accreditation initiative aimed to elevate the standard of education and training in the tourism sector. Focus will be placed on boosting the effectiveness of educational programs and aligning them more closely with the needs of the labor market in the Kingdom’s tourism sector, according to a press release from the Ministry of Tourism.

Princess Haifa said that the launch of this initiative is an important step toward ensuring the success of the ministry’s efforts. “The initiative, the largest in the world, involves assessing the quality of 102 national tourism education and training programs throughout 2024. The assessment, which will measure the quality of tourism programs, will be conducted by three organizations: UN Tourism, the Education and Training Evaluation Commission, and the Technical and Vocational Training Corporation,” she said.

The initiative aims to enable tourism education and training institutions supported by the Ministry of Tourism to earn international and local accreditations and professional certificates. Princess Haifa stressed that the initiative aims to achieve several goals, both short and long term, such as having 31 tourism education and training programs and institutions obtained national and international accreditation in 2024; enabling 200 trainers and educational and administrative staff to acquire professional certificates to teach tourism programs developed by the ministry in collaboration with the United Nations World Tourism Organization for 2024; ensuring that 37 Ministry of Tourism employees acquire a professional certificate to manage tourism programs; and having 27 tourism education and training programs and institutions obtained international and local accreditation in 2025.

“We are collaborating closely with our local and international partners to fulfill the objectives of this promising initiative. This effort will raise the competitiveness of the tourism labor market, enhance the Kingdom’s status as a premier global tourism destination, develop the skills of industry workers, and present them with exceptional job opportunities.”

In June 2024, the ministry initiated, under the ‘Ahluha’ initiative, the Tourism National Occupational Skills Standards in the tourism sector, in both Arabic and English. It marked the first national effort to establish specialized professional standards to improve the quality of tourism education and training outcomes, and bridge the gap between supply and demand in the field.