<The General Authority for Tourism and National Heritage revealed that the Ministry of Finance has allocated 2.7 billion riyals for lending to hotel and tourism projects, following the reinstatement of the lending decision approved by the Council of Ministers. During a workshop to introduce the lending programs for tourism projects, the director of hotel sector lending at the authority, Ahmed Al-Amir, explained that work is underway to improve the investment environment in the tourism sector by reactivating hotel lending at the Ministry of Finance.
Amir said that the Ministry of Finance has allocated 2.7 billion riyals for lending to hotel and tourism projects. According to Al-Amir, the Supreme Order directed that lending for hotel projects be limited to cities that do not have hotels, which are in need of a specific type of hotel service, provided that lending is limited to projects that are established in less developed cities and governorates with a population of less than one million people according to the latest statistics of the Department of Statistics and Information, noting that the total number of hotels in the Kingdom, according to the latest statistics, exceeded 6,500 establishments, while more than 12 requests for hotels were submitted to the Ministry of Finance, and 390 million riyals for hotels approved for 2017.
Amir said that the Medina region is one of the most important tourism projects in the Kingdom. He considered the Medina region the most fortunate in benefiting from lending for hotel projects, as the recently financed hotels exceeded 60 hotels, followed by the Riyadh region, then the Eastern Province, while the Al-Baha region had only one opportunity through a four-star hotel.
He pointed out that the most prominent hotel applications were submitted to the Ministry of Finance for 12 hotels, and the amount of Riyal million was allocated for approved hotels in 2017. He also pointed out that the most prominent new regulations for lending are expanding the areas of lending to include less developed cities and governorates, doubling the lending to 100% to 100 million riyals instead of 50 million riyals, extending the repayment period from 3 to 4 years, and involving the Tourism Authority in the committee to review and study loan applications.
