Saudi tourism sector to create 1.2 mln jobs by 2020

The number of job opportunities in Saudi Arabia's tourism sector is expected to increase to 1.2 million by 2020, Arab News reported, citing Prince Sultan bin Salman, president of the Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage (SCTH).

Localizing tourist jobs has resulted in boosting the number of direct jobs in the tourism sector from 936,000 in 2016 to 993,000 by the end of 2017, he told the annual conference of the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) in Buenos Aires.

Direct jobs in the tourism sector exceeded 994,000, with the proportion of Saudis currently employed in the industry is 28 percent, he said.

The contribution of tourism to the national GDP amounted to 3.6 percent and the revenues of the tourism sector reached SAR 97.5 billion ($26 billion).