His Highness welcomed the companies“ officials and congratulated them on achieving these requirements to provide service in this important economic project, looking forward to the opening of their projects soon.
His Highness pointed out that ”road rest areas” is one of the main issues that the General Authority for Tourism and Antiquities was the first to raise their poor conditions and sought to issue decisions to reorganize them based on the general strategy for the development of national tourism approved by the state in 1425 AH, and the subsequent efforts of the Authority with its partners from government institutions, primarily the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs, the Ministry of Interior, regional emirates, secretariats and the Ministry of Transport, to address the status of services in these important sites for citizens, which contributes to the development of land travel between the regions of the Kingdom, and the promotion of domestic tourism.
His Highness expressed his appreciation for the great efforts made by the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs with the support and follow-up of HRH Prince Mansour bin Miteb by preparing a comprehensive program to improve the status of service centers and gas stations in coordination and integration with the General Authority for Tourism and Antiquities and other competent authorities to be implemented within two years in accordance with the Cabinet decision issued in Jumada I last year.
His Highness stressed that the Authority has presented several initiatives during the past years to improve service levels, including working with the emirates of the regions and secretariats to conduct field surveys and evaluation of all stations and facilities, as well as announcing a program for quality certificates granted by the Authority to stations that initiative to upgrade their services and are subject to evaluation according to the high standards set by the Authority, preparing indicative designs for these stations and their operation mechanism, in addition to working with SASCO to radically develop its stations to be at a level worthy of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and to promote what it deserves.
His Highness pointed out that road rest stops represent a large market that has not yet started, and will be an important economic activity after its development and qualification, and that the encouragement of the tourism movement and the great growth it is witnessing will constitute a great expansion of investments in this service, which will only remain in those who achieve high standards, calling on companies to train Saudi citizens and use them in the operation of facilities associated with the stations and provide appropriate job opportunities for them, and link these stations with villages and heritage towns next to them, so as to display the products of citizens in those villages from handicrafts, heritage products, agricultural and other products, in addition to attention to
His Royal Highness Prince Dr. Mansour bin Miteb bin Abdulaziz, Minister of Municipal and Rural Affairs, handed over 3-year final qualification certificates to three companies for the management, operation and maintenance of gas stations and service centers on regional roads: Petromin, Saudi Automotive Services and Equipment Company (SASCO) and Emirates National Oil Company Limited (ENOC).
The Ministry has prepared a comprehensive program to improve the status of service centers and fuel stations in cooperation with the General Authority for Tourism and Antiquities, the Ministry of Transport and the competent authorities to be implemented within two years, in accordance with the decision of the Council of Ministers, which stipulated ”what was submitted by His Royal Highness the President of the General Authority for Tourism and Antiquities on the Authority's initiative to improve service centers on regional roads - based on the general strategy for the development of national tourism issued by the Council of Ministers Resolution (20) dated 24/1/1425H - in order to develop domestic tourism.“
For their part, the officials of the qualified companies expressed their thanks to His Highness the President of the Authority for their reception and their appreciation for the efforts of the General Authority for Tourism and Antiquities, which adopted this file and took the initiative to identify the issues it was suffering from, and developed solutions until the issuance of the decision of the Honorable Council of Ministers based on what the Authority submitted, stressing that they rely a lot on the growth of the tourism market and the great demand from domestic tourists who prefer to use roads, and their demand for road trips will increase when the network of rest houses on regional roads is completed.
