RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, 27 May 2021: Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Tourism announces the appointment of Gloria Guevera Manzo, most recently CEO of the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), to the position of chief special advisor to Minister of Tourism Ahmed Al Khateeb.
As a special advisor, she will help facilitate international collaborations, develop human capital and contribute to the delivery of the Kingdom’s ambitious, large-scale tourism investments under Vision 2030.
The minister of tourism welcomed the appointment, saying: “Saudi Arabia’s tourism industry has incredible potential and is already supporting economic growth and job creation across the Kingdom, in line with Vision 2030.”
“We have a strong national heritage and thousands of unique stories to be told. Gloria brings international expertise and a tremendous global network from her time representing the global tourism and travel sector as the CEO of WTTC and direct experience with evolving a nascent tourism industry from her time as Secretary of Tourism in Mexico, that will help us as our large-scale investment in tourism moves to the next level.”
Saudi Arabia has issued more than 400,000 tourism visas since the launch of its new tourist visa system in September 2019 and launching a SAR400 billion tourism fund and a SAR2 billion Tourism Partners programme.
The Ministry of Tourism is spearheading the sector’s development towards the Vision 2030 goals of increasing tourism’s contribution to GDP from 3% to more than 10%, creating an additional one million jobs for Saudi nationals and rising international visits to 100 million by 2030.
