<The General Authority for Tourism (GAT) has started to activate the Council of Ministers' decision issued on 13 Rabi' Al-Thani 1436H regarding the licensing of Hajj accommodation buildings to be used to house pilgrims and visitors, in the presence of officials from a number of authorities concerned with the implementation of the decision.

. <The meeting, chaired by Engineer Omar Al Mubarak, Director General of the Authority's Licensing Department, in the presence of Adel bin Darwish Diwali, Chairman of the Hajj Housing Committee, and officials from the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs and the General Directorate of Civil Defense, discussed the objectives and procedures for licensing pilgrims' residences, and the mechanism of work throughout the year in receiving pilgrims, raising the level of services provided, in addition to clarifying the roles of the competent authorities, and discussing the minimum requirements for licensing accommodation facilities.</This is in line with the directives of His Royal Highness Prince Sultan bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, Chairman of the Authority, to coordinate between the concerned authorities to activate the Council's decision, and involve them in developing mechanisms and procedures related to the application of the system.

<The meeting also addressed a number of issues related to the activation of the decision and the technical link between the Authority and the competent authorities concerned with licenses in order to facilitate investors and operators.

. The meeting recommended reviewing the minimum hotel operating requirements set by the Authority for tourist accommodation facilities in Makkah and Medina, providing the Authority with all the models and requirements of each entity to be studied by the members and express their opinion on them, in addition to providing the Authority with a list of facilities licensed to house pilgrims who wish to operate them as buildings for housing pilgrims throughout the year by the Ministry of Hajj, and agreeing to hold a meeting dedicated to the electronic link between the Authority and the competent authorities and what has been done about it.

Recommended the meeting.