عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Varieties

Cruise Saudi to Participate in 30th Arabian Travel Market Exhibition in Dubai

Cruise Saudi will join the most prominent decision makers and regional experts in discussing the future of the travel and tourism industry in the region. SPA
Cruise Saudi will join the most prominent decision makers and regional experts in discussing the future of the travel and tourism industry in the region. SPA
TT
TT

Cruise Saudi to Participate in 30th Arabian Travel Market Exhibition in Dubai

Cruise Saudi will join the most prominent decision makers and regional experts in discussing the future of the travel and tourism industry in the region. SPA
Cruise Saudi will join the most prominent decision makers and regional experts in discussing the future of the travel and tourism industry in the region. SPA

The Cruise Saudi company, a 100% Public Investment Fund-owned business in the Kingdom, is preparing to participate in the four-day Arabian Travel Market exhibition ATM 2023 that will be held Monday at the Dubai World Trade Center.

It will join the most prominent decision makers and regional experts in discussing the future of the travel and tourism industry in the region and exploring ways of professional cooperation.

CEO of Cruise Saudi Lars Clasen said the Arabian Travel Market is a leading international event in the field of travel and tourism, pointing out that through its participation, Cruise Saudi aims to give a boost to the tourism sector in the Kingdom by attracting 1.3 million cruise visitors by 2035, in line with Saudi Vision 2030, which has, among its goals, the tourism sector increasing to 10% its contribution to the gross domestic product.

Clasen mentioned the rapid growth of Cruise Saudi and how it supports the Kingdom's position as a prominent new tourist destination due to its strategic geographical location in the region, which may be reached by about 250 million people living in Europe, Asia and Africa in three hours of air travel to the Red Sea or the Arabian Gulf.

He pointed out that Cruise Saudi leads the development of the Saudi cruise industry in an integrated fashion and with high-level international quality.

"Since its launch in 2021, Cruise Saudi has succeeded in completing two successful seasons of cruises; its third season is still going on, he said, adding that the company is keen to introduce cruise ship passengers to various tourist destinations on the coasts of the Kingdom that have not yet been discovered by international tourists".

He also said that Cruise Saudi plans to expand with government support and partners, which enabled the company to develop a marina and passenger terminal within three ports boasting infrastructure that enables it to receive international cruise ships, namely: Jeddah Islamic Port and Yanbu Commercial Port on the Red Sea, and King Abdulaziz Port in Dammam on the Arabian Gulf.

Clasen said that the company has been seeking to boost the tourism industry in the Kingdom by attracting more tourist cruise companies to add Saudi ports among the main ports on their routes, and worked to develop more ports and cooperate with partners to provide a package of varied coastal tours that suit different groups as well as fun beach adventures.

Most Viewed

 
 
Varieties

Protecting 1.2% of Earth Would Prevent Most Extinctions, Study Says 

Mexican gray wolves, an endangered native species, are seen resting in their enclosure at the Museo del Desierto in Saltillo, Mexico July 1, 2020. Picture taken July 1, 2020. (Reuters)
Mexican gray wolves, an endangered native species, are seen resting in their enclosure at the Museo del Desierto in Saltillo, Mexico July 1, 2020. Picture taken July 1, 2020. (Reuters)
TT
TT

Protecting 1.2% of Earth Would Prevent Most Extinctions, Study Says 

Mexican gray wolves, an endangered native species, are seen resting in their enclosure at the Museo del Desierto in Saltillo, Mexico July 1, 2020. Picture taken July 1, 2020. (Reuters)
Mexican gray wolves, an endangered native species, are seen resting in their enclosure at the Museo del Desierto in Saltillo, Mexico July 1, 2020. Picture taken July 1, 2020. (Reuters)

Setting aside an additional 1.2% of the world's land as nature preserves would prevent the majority of predicted plant and animal extinctions and cost about $263 billion, according to a study published on Tuesday.

The world is racing to meet a goal to protect 30% of the world by 2030 to protect wildlife that is being decimated by climate change, pollution and habitat destruction.

Global policymakers will meet at a United Nations summit in Colombia in October to discuss plans for reaching that goal.

The study in the journal Frontiers in Science aimed to identify the highest value areas in hope that they be included in those protection plans, said Carlos Peres, a study co-author and conservation ecology expert at the University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom.

"Most countries do not actually have a strategy," Peres said.

"The 30-by-30 targets still lack a lot of details because it doesn't actually say what 30 percent should be protected."

The study's proposed protections would cover an additional 1.6 million square km (633,000 square miles) - an area about a fifth the size of the United States - across 16,825 sites globally that are home to rare and threatened species.

That's on top of the nearly 16% of the world that already have some level of protection.

The study estimated the $263 billion bill is how much it would cost to acquire the new areas, many of which include private property, at current value over the next five years.

"Time is not on our side because it will become increasingly more expensive and more difficult to set aside additional protected areas," Peres said.

Land acquisition makes up most of the cost of creating protected areas, and the study did not consider the upkeep costs for policing the reserves.

About three-quarters of the sites are tropical forests, as those are the world's most biodiverse ecosystems. The Phillipines, Brazil and Indonesia are home to more than half of the high-value sites.

Russia is the single country with the most high-valued area ripe for conservation with 138,436 square km identified in the study, an area the size of Greece.

Several African countries also topped the list with Madagascar having the fourth-highest number of sites overall while the Democratic Republic of Congo had the largest area targeted for conservation on the continent.

The United States is the only developed nation among the top 30 countries in the analysis, with 0.6% of the sites or an area twice the size of Delaware.

The researchers only considered land and freshwater ecosystems but not oceans or marine protected areas. Researchers did not include invertebrates in the study, as the geographical distributions insects and other such animals are not well mapped.