The UNWTO Executive Training Course in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on Tourism Strategy, organized by the World Tourism Organization, its UNWTO.Themis Foundation and the Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage (SCTH), was inaugurated on 13th November by Dr. Turki Bin Nadir, SCTH Human Resources General Manager; Mr. Abdullah Seraj Al Ghamdi, SCTH Director of Training and Development Department; on behalf of Mr. Omar Valdez, UNWTO.Themis Foundation Executive Director, Dr. Edit Szivas, Course Coordinator, and course facilitators Dr. Adel Rady and Mr.Mohamad Qablan.

This Executive Training Course will introduce participants to the fundamentals of Tourism Strategy -such as the key principles and processes, key elements of a tourism destination- and will discuss the interlinking concepts of destination competitiveness and sustainability. Furthermore, it will introduce participants to the key steps in the tourism investment process and will share tools regarding project identification and selection and the preparation of investment related documentation. This will be followed by developing a good working understanding of the participants regarding the key steps in the tourism strategy preparation process, such as the strategic analysis, setting of vision, goals, objectives, tourism product development, value chain approach for optimizing visitor experience, governance and public-private partnerships. Finally, the Course will introduce participants to techniques related to tourism strategy evaluation and updating.