Riyadh, February 02, SPA -- Prince Sultan bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, President of Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities (SCTA) launched on Monday evening the Tourism Information and Research Center's Tourism GIS Project, which is now available on the Internet site: www.mas.gov.sa in addition to the launching of Saudi Tourism website on www.sauditourism.com.sa.

In a press statement following the launching of the sites, Prince Sultan bin Salman reiterated that the importance of tourism GIS project, which is a container for information as regards the promotion of tourism products, activities, events, locations, statistics, and others. 

He said that the Tourism GIS project will help in facilitating access to information for tourists and decision-makers, and will be used as a tool to assist tourism planning. 

The project is a part of several phases construction schemes adopted by the Commission to enhance data bases on the sector of tourism and antiquities, and as a part of the Commission to shift towards full electronic management and use of information technology in line with the directives of the leadership in this regard, he said. The Commission is expected to achieve by the end of 2009 the optimum level of requirements for e-government, he added.

SCTA has become the central statistics reference with regard to tourism, and has approximately 1000 studies published in Tourism Information and Research Center (MAS) site. SCTA's role also focuses on providing studies as regards the establishment of tourism information system at the level of Arab States, and the issuance of statistical reports in tourism on a regular basis. 

He added that this achievement is not only of SCTA's, but is also the product of a partnership with a number of other governmental agencies, he added.

Prince Sultan bin Salman said Tourism GIS is an extension of a bunch of computer programs and systems that MAS work to provide information to relevant workers and beneficiaries.

He also said that the project reflects the advanced level reached by the MAS through the implementation of a number of new programs in addition to a number of accomplishments achieved, the most recently, the selection of MAS by the World Tourism Organization (WTO), as capacity-building center for regional tourism statistics in the Middle East in addition to the issuance of the Center for the tourism satellite account (TSA). It is a statistical accountant framework in the field of tourism and measures the goods and services according to international standards of concepts, classifications and definitions which allow valid comparisons from country to country in a consistent manner. 

A complete TSA contains detailed production accounts of the tourism industry and their linkages to other industries, employment, capital formation and additional non-monetary information on tourism), as well as the establishment of an electronic database of tourism providers in Saudi Arabia.

Meanwhile, Director General of the MAS, Dr. Mohammad Al-Ahmad said that GIS is a tool to help SCTA to manage tourism sector electronically, pointing out that it contains a set of applications that are characterized by the construction of integrated tourist geographic database to provide an information service for tourists, and access to tourism data from anywhere at any time and over the Internet or through mobile phone devices, which will be available to Internet users through linkage to the MAS and Saudi Tourism websites.

He pointed out that the system will contribute to the protection and management of tourism resources, the project also will helps in the formation of electronic archives of geographic information and linking of geographic maps and data unitary system, in addition to adding geographical dimension in electronic transaction, the standardization of technical specifications of the maps, and activation of a mechanism to exchange information with partners. In addition to contribution to the elimination of repetition and maintenance of maps and information as well as assistance to the printing and dissemination of maps and databases.

© Saudi Press Agency 2009