The Dean of the College of Sharia in Al-Ahsa, Sheikh Dr. Yasser Al-Rabie, announced, on Thursday, the recommendations of the Al-Ahsa conference, the capital of Arab tourism, who patronized His Royal Highness Prince Saud bin Nayef, Governor of the Eastern Region, and was inaugurated by His Highness Prince Badr bin Muhammad bin Gallawi, Governor of Al-Ahsa, and organized by the Saudi Geographical Society and the Department of Geography in the College of Sharia and Islamic Studies in Al-Ahsa, for a period of three days in Makan Hotel.
Where Dr. Al-Rabeeh read the recommendations that represented the necessity of paying attention to environmental diversity and environmental balance by encouraging environmental tourism in Al-Ahsa, and activating the positive trends towards diversity among the segments of society, and establishing an Arab Tourism Investment Authority or a council for the Arab tourism economic balance for the sustainable development of tourist sites in the Arab world, and designing a spatial database of the tourism ingredients in Al-Ahsa Governorate in order to apply it in determining the size of the tourist request, its size and its equity in the governorate. With the use of GIS programs.
He added: "The recommendation to apply the Hof model to estimate the tourist demand and similar models in the applied studies of tourist destinations in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, with the formation of a specialized team in this field to do so in the field of inter-studies, and to support tourism services and facilities in Al-Ahsa Governorate through the establishment of a number of projects The proposal is like an ecological hospital in Al Aqeer Beach and an eco-tourism lodge in Al-Ahsa Park, encouraging the private sector and supporting it technically to direct more investments in the national tourism field.
The conference also recommended the importance of designing a map of thermal comfort in the Kingdom, and then linking the possible tourism activities to times of thermal comfort, and the inclusion of the historical region in Al-Aqir to the components of the registration file for Al-Ahsa Oasis in the list of UNESCO World Heritage sites,reinforcement of the existing eco-tourism destinations in Al-Ahsa governorate as supportive elements of tourism activity such as sand skiing and camping, activating the role of natural reserves in eco-tourism in the Kingdom in parallel with the application of environmental legislation controls to achieve sustainable environmental tourism development..
The recommendations stressed the activation of the cultural heritage in Al-Ahsa Governorate as one of the attractions for enhancing the tourism component and increasing the tourism capacity of the tourism sector in the governorate, highlighting the most important challenges facing achieving sustainable tourism development in Al-Ahsa Governorate and ways to address them, and creating a database for urban heritage areas in Al-Ahsa Governorate and using Its indicators for the purposes of tourism development, the importance of preparing a guide for tourism investment and activating the role of tourist guide offices, and seeking the help of international expertise in developing and improving tourism promotion..
It also came in the recommendations to address the agricultural retreat in Al-Ahsa Governorate, by activating farm tourism through finding environmental lodges in it for tourist accommodation as a compensated economic return, and using natural features that have economic ingredients in sustainable economic development, including Al-Asfar Lake in Al-Ahsa Governorate, Providing interactive digital platforms for the use of tourists in the tourist areas in the Kingdom, and stimulating medical tourism and environmental hospitalization through the optimal use of natural components suitable for him, tourism activity with designing digital maps for available hospital sites, and paying attention to external tourism marketing for tourism facilities and sites in the governorate by preparing the appropriate information materials and distributing them through attachés Saudi cultural abroad..
It is mentioned that the conference lasted three days through 6 research and discussion sessions, which included 40 papers presented by a group of specialists and academics searching in the field of tourism and their geographical patterns at the level of Arab countries, which served the topic of the conference and its main themes for Al-Ahsa.