Okaz/Saudi Gazette

DAMMAM — More than 18 million tourists, including religious pilgrims, visited the Kingdom from various parts of the world and spent over SR98 billion in the country last year.

This was revealed by Ahmed Al-Bouali, chairman of the committee on hospitality and entertainment in the Eastern Province Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

He was talking before an extensive meeting organized by the committee in Dammam recently.

Bouali said there were 2,045 entertainment activities in the Kingdom last year, which attracted more than 8 million visitors.

"The sales of the restaurants and eateries alone have crossed SR80 billion," he said.

He said the tourism sector was playing an important role in the national economy and that the spending on it reached more than SR39.7 billion.

Nader Al-Qahtani, a committee member, said the size of the sector is about SR127 billion of which SR79 billion is restaurants, SR31 billion hotels and SR17 entertainment.

He said a big event on water entertainment would be organized in the Eastern Province in September and was expected to attract a large number of visitors.

"This will be the largest water activity of its kind in the Middle East and will be the beginning of such events in the Eastern Province," he said.

Qahtani said the committee would soon issue a directory containing detailed data on the suppliers to help investors in the tourism sector.

Ahmed Al-Qadi, another committee member, said the sector was committed to create more than 50,000 jobs for young Saudi men and women within the next five years.