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Saudi Tourism Authority Participates in Phocuswright Conference in Florida

Saudi Tourism Authority Participates in Phocuswright Conference in Florida
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Saudi Tourism Authority Participates in Phocuswright Conference in Florida

Saudi Tourism Authority Participates in Phocuswright Conference in Florida

The Saudi Tourism Authority participated in the Phocuswright Conference, a leading gathering of the travel and technology industry.
Held from November 13 to 16 in Florida, US, under the theme "You, Me and the Machine," the conference aimed to boost communication, develop relationships among current partners, establish new strategic partnerships, and increase investment in the tourism sector.
Saudi Tourism Authority CEO Fahd Hamidaddin participated in a session titled "Innovating Travel & Tourism for the Future," where he shed light on the successful transformation of the tourism sector in the Kingdom.
He tackled the culture of innovation in the country, the development and qualification of national talents, the endeavor to enhance the tourists' experience, and the creative approach in setting goals and overcoming challenges, all of which aim to achieve the targets of the tourism sector and the Kingdom's Vision 2030.
Hamidaddin stressed that the Saudi Tourism Authority participates in significant international exhibitions and conferences with the aim of attracting investment in the tourism sector in the Kingdom, and that one of the key targeted markets is the American.

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Japan’s Sado Mines Added to World Heritage List

This photo taken on May 9, 2022 shows a mine on Sado island. (AFP)
This photo taken on May 9, 2022 shows a mine on Sado island. (AFP)
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Japan’s Sado Mines Added to World Heritage List

This photo taken on May 9, 2022 shows a mine on Sado island. (AFP)
This photo taken on May 9, 2022 shows a mine on Sado island. (AFP)

A network of mines on a Japanese island infamous for using conscripted wartime labor was added to UNESCO's World Heritage register Saturday after South Korea dropped earlier objections to its listing.

The Sado gold and silver mines, now a popular tourist attraction, are believed to have started operating as early as the 12th century and produced until after World War II.

Japan had put a case for World Heritage listing because of their lengthy history and the artisanal mining techniques used there at a time when European mines had turned to mechanization.

The proposal was opposed by Seoul when it was first put because of the use of involuntary Korean labor during World War II, when Japan occupied the Korean peninsula.

UNESCO confirmed the listing of the mines at its ongoing committee meeting in New Delhi on Saturday after a bid highlighting its archaeological preservation of "mining activities and social and labor organization".

"I would like to wholeheartedly welcome the inscription... and pay sincere tribute to the long-standing efforts of the local people which made this possible," Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa said in a statement.

The World Heritage effort was years in the making, inspired in part by the successful recognition of a silver mine in western Japan's Shimane region.

South Korea's foreign ministry said it had agreed to the listing "on the condition that Japan faithfully implements the recommendation... to reflect the 'full history' at the Sado Gold Mine site and takes proactive measures to that end."

Historians have argued that recruitment conditions at the mine effectively amounted to forced labor, and that Korean workers faced significantly harsher conditions than their Japanese counterparts.

"Discrimination did exist," Toyomi Asano, a professor of history of Japanese politics at Tokyo's Waseda University, told AFP in 2022.

"Their working conditions were very bad and dangerous. The most dangerous jobs were allocated to them."

Also added to the list on Saturday was the Beijing Central Axis, a collection of former imperial palaces and gardens in the Chinese capital.

The UNESCO committee meeting runs until Wednesday.