SCTNH President Prince Sultan bin Salman

Prince Sultan bin Salman, president of the Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage (SCTNH), is leading the Kingdom’s delegation that will attend the Group of Twenty (G-20) tourism minister’s meeting in the Turkish city of Antalya on Wednesday.

A SCTNH official said here on Tuesday, “the SCTNH president will lead the delegation participating in the G-20 meeting of the ministers of tourism to be held in Antalya, a southwestern city and the most visited destination in Turkey.”

Notably, Turkey is holding the presidency of the G-20 summit this year.

The meeting assumes significance being the platform to set the tourism agenda for the 20 major economies in the world.

This year the agenda for the G-20 tourism minister’s meet includes issues like small and medium enterprises in tourism, employment, policies that stimulate job creation and sustainable development opportunities, and the Kingdom’s most prominent achievements in the tourism and national heritage sector.

Prince Sultan is likely to speak about ever-growing facets of Saudi tourism under his leadership and is expected to sign a number of bilateral agreements with member countries for mutual cooperation.

Significantly, tourism is growing by leaps and bounds in the Kingdom, recording a faster rate of growth with SCTNH expanding its footprint activities across the Kingdom. Since its formation in 2000, there is a marked difference with emphasis on all aspects of tourism as an industry par excellence, which not only promotes domestic tourism and protects Kingdom’s rich cultural heritage, but at the same time creates employment avenues for Saudi youths, thus helping in streamlining the labor market.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) included Historic Jeddah and Hail Rock Art in the World Heritage List during the 38th UNESCO World Heritage committee session in Qatar (2014) and 39th session of UNESCO World Heritage committee in Bonn, Germany (2015).

Turkey officially took over the presidency of the G-20 from Australia, which hosted the Brisbane summit in 2014, while the next summit will be hosted by China presiding over the Hangzhou summit in 2016.