The Saudi Red Sea Authority seeks to establish rules and regulations for providing services for coastal tourism activities, and to encourage visitors and tourists to explore the Red Sea, which enhances their experiences and contributes to raising the level of maturity of the sector.
The Saudi Red Sea Authority announced during the current year, On granting the first 6 licenses to tourist navigation agents For yachts in the Kingdom, as part of its accelerated efforts to build a thriving coastal tourism sector, reflecting its keenness to organize navigational and marine tourism activities and provide a suitable environment for tourists, investors and practitioners, to enhance the Red Sea’s position as a global tourism destination within the Kingdom’s Vision 2030.
The list of licensed yacht tour operators includes several national and international companies, including: Faisal Mansour Haji & Partners Limited, Yusuf Bin Ahmed Kanoo Limited, Hasco Trading Establishment, Hill Robinson Company, GLS Yachts Limited, in addition to the Arabian Gulf Shipping Company, according to the Saudi Press Agency.”SPA”.
Licenses to attract investments
This comes as part of the Authority’s efforts to enhance its role and tasks, which include issuing licenses and permits to regulate navigational and marine tourism activities, stimulating and attracting investments, identifying infrastructure needs, and ensuring the protection of the marine environment within the geographical scope of the Kingdom, with the aim of building a promising coastal tourism sector that contributes to achieving the goals of Vision 2030.
A step to support coastal tourism
Through this step, the Authority aims to facilitate arrival and departure operations at tourist marinas and ports, coordinate tourism logistics services, and support customs procedures.
It is worth noting that these tourism licenses are a qualitative step towards developing coastal tourism in the Kingdom, and reflect the Authority’s commitment to regulating navigational and marine tourism activities, by providing a safe and attractive environment for tourists on the Red Sea to become a distinguished global tourist destination.
First regulation
Last September, the Saudi Red Sea Authority issued the first regulations for tourist yacht activities in the Kingdom, with the aim of developing a thriving and sustainable coastal tourism sector, and contributing to achieving the goals of “Vision 2030” by diversifying sources of non-oil income.
The regulation focused on setting regulatory frameworks for yacht activities within the geographical scope of the Kingdom, determining the necessary conditions and requirements, and issuing tourist and recreational licenses and permits, while ensuring environmental protection and sustainability and providing safety requirements.
The regulation includes the terms and procedures related to issuing a technical license (tourism entertainment) to yacht owners or their authorized agents, and a tourist rental license, which requires the presence of a licensed agent or rental company and an approved contract between the two parties, with the provision of requirements for safe entry from the marina to the yacht and a safety guide.
