RIYADH: has kicked off the inaugural edition of the TOURISE conference in Riyadh, a new global platform designed to unite the travel ecosystem and address the future challenges of the industry.
Being held from Nov. 11 to 13, the forum — organized by the Ministry of Tourism — aims to shape the future of the industry by fostering growth and sustainability.
It brings together leaders from key sectors intersecting with tourism, including technology, aviation, and entertainment.
Speaking at the opening of the event, Tourism Minister Ahmed Al-Khateeb explained the rationale for creating the forum: “We found a gap — an event or venue where the private sector meets governments, the public sector, and NGOs,” Al-Khateeb said. “And therefore, the idea of TOURISE came there.”
The minister explained that modern tourism extends far beyond traditional travel agencies, encompassing a vast “ecosystem” that includes digital platforms, airlines, airports, accommodation, and retail.
He stressed the importance of bringing these sectors together to plan for a future in which the number of travelers is expected to rise from 1.5 billion to 3 billion by 2035.
“How are we going to fly them in a time when plane manufacturers face a big challenge to deliver aircraft?” Al-Khateeb asked, highlighting one of the key issues the sector must address.
A major theme of his speech was the need to balance technological innovation with tourism’s human-centered nature.
“AI can digitalize the whole service end to end,” Al-Khateeb said. “But in an industry where human-to-human touch is very important, we don’t want to digitalize this service completely — we want to keep the jobs.”
He underscored tourism’s role as a primary global employer, noting that it provides 40 percent of its jobs to women and 80 percent to youth, and is vital for smaller nations and developing economies.
Al-Khateeb concluded by reaffirming Riyadh’s role as the long-term home for these global discussions, announcing that the conference will become an annual event in the Saudi capital.
“We will gather every year in Riyadh to discuss the challenges and the opportunities in a very important sector that represents about 10 percent of the global GDP, or $11 trillion, and 10 percent of the global jobs,” he said.
Echoing the theme of synergy, Investment Minister Khalid Al-Falih emphasized the strong link between tourism and capital funding.
“Countries that are an attractive tourism destination, business people are comfortable being there ... So it is a virtuous cycle — investment brings tourism, and tourism brings investment,” he said, positioning a thriving tourism sector as a cornerstone of economic diversification and attractiveness.
Italy’s Minister of Tourism Daniela Santanche used her comments from the stage to talk about the importance of using the private sector to help drive growth in the industry.
“People talk about tourism. Everybody says it’s important for their growth, but not every country then acts upon it, so it’s important to add resources to companies because companies can create new jobs that they can create value,” she said.
Prince Turki bin Talal bin Abdul Aziz, governor of ’s Asir region, told the event that 4,000 workshops had been conducted with local residents to make sure their concerns about an increase in tourism are addressed.
“We can’t only build Asir for Asir, we have to make sure the locals are happy, but also we have to make sure that incomers are also happy. The equilibrium between this and that is the trick,” he said.
