Experts hail Saudi tourism, female empowerment efforts as most promising in region

Experts hail Saudi tourism, female empowerment efforts as most promising in region

LONDON: Saudi Arabia’s efforts toward sustainable and eco-friendly tourism initiatives were promising but misunderstood throughout the region, an expert has claimed.

Taleb Rifai, former secretary-general of the UN World Tourism Organization, was speaking to Arab News following a recent international travel sustainability summit in London.

He said: “It’s an issue on the Saudi agenda because the Saudis are trying to build their tourism industry and they understand that they can’t do it without tackling the issue of climate change.

“The issue of climate change is not very well understood in our part of the world unfortunately, now Saudi Arabia is a different example of that, but the other Arab states, we don’t talk about it in the streets.

“When you ask anybody about climate change, they don’t talk about it, they would rather talk about their livelihood, that’s more important to them,” he added.

He noted that the East Mediterranean, where he lives, was “one of the hottest areas in the world when it comes to climate change,” but that people there were not aware of it.

“Therefore, climate change is not an issue in our region. So, it has to be a regional issue,” Rifai added.

He slammed the UNWTO for failing to provide the leadership