Saudi Arabia’s tourism minister calls for a unified travel protocol post-COVID

Saudi Arabia’s tourism minister calls for a unified travel protocol post-COVID

Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Tourism Ahmed al-Khateeb called for unified travel protocols at the Future Investment Initiative (FII) Summit in Riyadh, in a session titled ‘Future of Tourism - Global Perspectives,’ on Tuesday.

“I’ve been on the plane for 200 hours in the last six months,” Saudi Arabia’s tourism minister said in the session, moderated by CNN’s Richard Quest.

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He added that he attended many tourism commissions to “work together to collaborate and cooperate and to work with the private sector because they operate the sector… to have a unified travel protocol.”

“We regulate the sector and they [the private sector] operate the sector, and to have a unified travel protocol,” al-Khateeb said.

“Today, travel is a nightmare. Europe is working alone, we want all the other continents to work together,” he added.

When asked about the Kingdom’s tourism strategy, the Saudi tourism ministry said that in 2020, the country lost more than 60 million jobs out of the 330 million jobs in its tourism industry, adding that “the crisis definitely impacted our industry severely.”

‘Crises are temporary’

Al-Khateeb added, “In this crisis [the COVID-19 pandemic], these crises are temporary, short term… We always plan for long term, and we