Tourism Minister: Saudi Arabia has strong growth potential in medium, long term

Saudi Arabia's Minister of Tourism, Ahmed Al-Khatib, said the Kingdom, as an increasingly growing tourist hub, the World Tourism Organization, along with the private sector and the entire international community, are to develop tangible solutions to mitigate the impact of the declining tourism revenues at the global level, SPA has reported.

This came during a remote meeting called by the WTO with the participation of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the tourism industry officials around the world.

"We trust our growth potential in the medium and long term; however, we need more support of the tourism industry," said Al-Khatib.

Al-Khatib highlighted the role of the Kingdom's Presidency of G20 this year, adding that the Kingdom seeks in cooperation with its partners to work to find ways to revitalize the economies of the world, including the tourism industry, which faces great challenges as a result of the disruption of global air traffic due to the coronavirus outbreak.

"We are confident that if appropriate actions are taken, the world will be able to implement measures that will help all of us to overcome the COVID-19 outbreak," he said. He also indicated that the Kingdom formed a supreme committee including various government sectors after China announced the virus outbreak at the end of 2019.