ABU RAS: YEMEN HAS PAID GREAT ATTENTION TO TOURIST SECTOR

SANA'A, Dec.12 (Saba) -Deputy Prime Minister for Local Authority
Affairs Sadiq Amin Abu Ras said on Saturday that Yemen has paid a
great attention to the tourist sector as it is one of the essential
promising sectors.

Inaugurating the 4th Consultative Meeting of Tourist Work Leaders,
Abu Ras added that Yemen has taken practical steps in order to
promote the economic role of tourist sector so as to ensure
stability and steady growth for tourism as well as exploiting and
developing the tourist and cultural potentials and resources of
Yemen to achieve an advance tourist industry.

Among those steps is inserting the tourism sector within the
productive economic sectors in the five-year plan of development and
enhancing the institutional and legislative structure of tourism and
the tourism promotion, Abu Ras pointed in his speech.

In this regard, Abu Ras noted that the government has approved a
number of strategies including a tourist development plan for the
next five year until 2015, a strategic plan of tourist promotion, a
strategy of tourist media and a national strategy draft for
long-term tourist development during 2010-2025 as well as a group of
decisions taken to tackle a number of current tourist issues.

Despite of the kidnapping crimes, sea piracy and terrorist and
sabotage acts in some areas, the tourist movement has witnessed
improvement in Yemen during the past three years, Abu Ras made it
clear.

Abu Ras affirmed that the government would work on adopting the
meeting recommendations so as to serve the efforts exerted to
promote the economic role of the tourist sector and strengthening
the current partnership between the public and private sectors and
the concerned parts.

The meeting, attended by 141 leaders of tourist work in the public
and private sectors at the national and international levels, aims
at introducing the participants to the national strategy for tourism
2010-2025 and new projects of tourist development for 2010 .

BA