عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Varieties

Saudi Arabia Establishes New Tourism Authority

Saudi Arabia Establishes New Tourism Authority
TT
TT

Saudi Arabia Establishes New Tourism Authority

Saudi Arabia Establishes New Tourism Authority

Local tourism in Saudi Arabia had undergone several stages of development until it turned into an organized sector supported by regulations, projects and programs.

Saudi Arabia had also further polished its image as a tourism destination by the launching of e-visas for tourists. It opened its gates to the world in a way that matches its rich heritage and tourism attractions it has to offer visitors.

Many Saudi towns, cities and historic sites are gaining a competitive edge on local and international levels thanks to the attention they have secured from Kingdom authorities that have made transforming the country into a tourism destination a prevalent trend.

The Saudi Cabinet had approved the establishment of the Saudi Tourism Authority (STA) based on the recommendation of Council of Economic and Development Affairs.

King Salman bin Abdulaziz issued in February 2020 a royal decree to set up a new ministry for tourism, after cancelling the Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage (SCTH), and appointed Ahmed Al-Khateeb as head of the ministry.

The Saudi Tourism Authority is tasked with supervising, developing and marketing tourist packages and products both locally and internationally.

Over the last two decades, Saudi Arabia underwent a number of advanced stages in the file of organized tourism. The Asir region, nestled in southern Saudi Arabia, witnessed the formation of the first committee to stimulate tourism back in 1995.

In 2000, the Supreme Commission for Tourism was established. Over the years its name was changed, until a Ministry of Tourism was established in 2020.

The Ministry seeks to raise the contribution of the tourism sector to the Gross domestic product (GDP) from 3% to 10%.

It also focuses on creating an attractive investment environment, providing diverse packages of tourism services and offers, developing tourist destinations and sites, generating one million jobs in the tourism sector, and qualifying human labor working in the sector.

Most Viewed

 
 
Varieties

Bull Sharks Linger in Warming Sydney Waters

A man watches large waves on Bondi Beach in Sydney on July 2, 2025, as large swells and high winds hit the east coast of Australia. (Photo by SAEED KHAN / AFP)
A man watches large waves on Bondi Beach in Sydney on July 2, 2025, as large swells and high winds hit the east coast of Australia. (Photo by SAEED KHAN / AFP)
TT
TT

Bull Sharks Linger in Warming Sydney Waters

A man watches large waves on Bondi Beach in Sydney on July 2, 2025, as large swells and high winds hit the east coast of Australia. (Photo by SAEED KHAN / AFP)
A man watches large waves on Bondi Beach in Sydney on July 2, 2025, as large swells and high winds hit the east coast of Australia. (Photo by SAEED KHAN / AFP)

Bull sharks are lingering off Sydney's beaches for longer periods each year as oceans warm, researchers said Friday, predicting they may one day stay all year.

The predators are migratory, swimming north in winter when Sydney's long-term ocean temperatures dip below 19 degrees Celsius (66 degrees Fahrenheit) to bask in the balmier waters off Queensland.

A team of scientists looked at 15 years of acoustic tracking of 92 tagged migratory sharks in an area including Bondi Beach and Sydney Harbour.

Records show the sharks now spend an average of 15 days longer off Sydney's coast in summer than they did in 2009, said James Cook University researcher Nicolas Lubitz.

"If they're staying longer, it means that people and prey animals have a longer window of overlap with them."

Shark attacks are rare in ocean-loving Australia, and most serious bites are from three species: bull sharks, great whites, and tiger sharks, according to a national database.

There have been more than 1,200 shark incidents around Australia since 1791, of which over 250 resulted in death.

Researchers found an average warming of 0.57C in Bondi for the October-May period between 2006 and 2024, said the study published in the peer-reviewed journal Science of The Total Environment.

Over a longer period, remotely sensed summer sea-surface temperatures in the area rose an average 0.67C between 1982 and 2024, they said.

"If this trend persists, which it likely will, it just means that these animals are going to spend more and more time towards their seasonal distributional limit, which currently is southern and central New South Wales," Lubitz said.

"So it could be that a few decades from now, maybe bull sharks are present year-round in waters off Sydney," he added.

"While the chances of a shark bite, and shark bites in Australia in general, remain low, it just means that people have to be more aware of an increased window of bull shark presence in coastal waters off Sydney."

Climate change could also change breeding patterns, Lubitz said, with early evidence indicating juvenile sharks were appearing in rivers further south.

There was some evidence as well that summer habitats for great whites, which prefer colder waters, were decreasing in northern New South Wales and Queensland, he said.

Tagged sharks trigger an alarm when they swim within range of a network of receivers dotted around parts of the Australian coast, giving people real-time warnings on a mobile app of their presence at key locations.