Fouad Al-Shabrami, director of the Tourism Marketing Council Initiative, affirmed that in recent years the state has devoted significant attention to the tourism and national heritage sectors to enable them to fulfill their designated roles.

He explained that the government’s efforts were recently reflected in the inclusion of tourism and heritage among the main pillars of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030, and the adoption of the National Transformation Program 2020, which the Council of Ministers approved—13 initiatives for the General Authority for Tourism and National Heritage at a cost exceeding 26 billion riyals, which will be allocated to tourism and heritage initiatives and projects through the Authority and its partners in the public and private sectors; this is an extension of the Authority’s development and growth efforts, which have spanned 15 years since its establishment.Among the most important initiatives the Authority is currently working on within the framework of the National Transformation Program is the Tourism Marketing Council initiative, which will be established as a regulatory body, which will be established in partnership with the private sector to manage and develop a range of products, activities, and marketing tools and resources that support the tourism and events industry in the Kingdom.Al-Shabrami said that the Council will self-fund its operations through the implementation of a per-night tourism fee to be levied directly by hotels and collected by the Council’s fund for the purpose of developing tourism programs and products and enhancing the integrated tourism experience; This will contribute in an innovative way to reducing the Authority’s expenses related to marketing activities and is in line with the Kingdom’s initiative to promote a culture of spending efficiency within government agencies.