As the deadline set by the Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage (SCTH) for tourism establishments to harmonize their conditions according to the Authority's requirements and classification, M. Omar Al-Mubarak, Director General of the General Department of Licensing at the Authority, revealed that the quality of services in the facilities has improved to 50% of furnished units and apartments in the Kingdom's accommodation sector market, while every facility that has not achieved the minimum safety and security requirements must exit the market after applying the requirements of licensing and classification of the Authority according to the current tourism system.

Controlling violations and setting prices

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Al Mubarak explained that any tourism product in the world needs to achieve the minimum requirements for success and to ensure its operation and continuity, on top of which is the minimum security and safety of operation, public health and hygiene, and tourism needs the availability of basic services such as water, transportation and traffic regulation to ensure easy access, in addition to the importance of the element of authenticity and heritage in it. Where the law and its regulations are applied and violations related to requirements, classification criteria and price violations are controlled.

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5500 violations for residential units

Mubarak revealed that the number of violations seized by the Authority's teams in the regional branches on the shelter sector in the Kingdom upon receiving the jurisdiction to supervise in 1429 AH reached more than 5500 violations, mostly in residential units that were operating without regular security and safety licenses.

Three pillars of the tourism industry

He pointed out that it is important to understand the relationship between the influential and affected parties when creating or establishing any product, as this depends on the elements of a key triangle to achieve this important equation, the first of which is activating the cooperation of government agencies, whether the interior sectors or municipalities and other facilities with the Authority to apply its regulations to supervise and achieve control and implementation, with independent regulatory agencies, and secondly comes the role of the investor, which is the generator and the important engine for activities and implementation and needs support and incentives at all levels of officials and employees of government agencies when in this aspect there is clarity and transparency in regulation and incentives and strict supervision

The third of this equation is the consumer or tourist, when the implementation of regulations from the government agencies concerned with the required control will show the quality that the investor needs to establish his project and the tourist who seeks comfort in any place and we have examples in well-known tourist cities, whose services vary, such as Taif and Abha, which over the past years witnessed tourist excellence and currently need active cooperation from government agencies, funding and monitoring to develop services in them and address the decline in municipal services.

The third of this equation is the consumer or tourist, when the implementation of regulations from the government agencies concerned with the required control is achieved.

Fine 100 thousand riyals

Article 16 gives a one-year deadline from the effective date of the system for practitioners of tourism activities and professions licensed before the issuance of the system to harmonize their conditions according to the new requirements and classification, and all minimum licensees must apply for classification for the service and equipment provided by them (according to the standards adopted for them). This is after the minimum limit was set for hotels to one star and in the types of furnished units to the fourth degree, and the new tourism system raised the ceiling of penalties to ten times, as the penalty was set at a fine not exceeding 100 thousand riyals with the possibility of doubling it and revoking the license in case of recurrence and repetition of the violation.