On the sidelines of the 22nd World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) Global Summit, which took place in Riyadh between November 28 and December 1, 2022, ECZA signed a MoU with the Ministry of Investment (MISA), Yakoon and KAEC. The collative agreement aims to establish a foundation to explore investment opportunities with international partners in regard to KAEC’s tourism sector, identify ways to provide an enticing environment to attract investors and activate proactive measures to offer integrated government services in a convenient manner.

Within the MoU, ECZA will provide full-scale public services and work to facilitate the investor’s journey in accordance with the regulations within the ECs. MISA will cooperate with the relevant entities and conduct a survey identifying ways to provide the right incentives to attract investors, in addition to facilitating appropriate channels for cooperation with international organizations. According to the agreement, MISA will also support Yakoon to communicate with entities working on major opportunities and projects, and actively cooperate with the parties to develop a preliminary feasibility study, referring to business cases and objectives of the MoU. For its part, Yakoon, a Saudi hospitality group operating in the hotel management & development, entertainment and F&B industries, will present informative research regarding investment opportunities in resorts and hotels in KAEC.

The company will also discuss ways of cooperation with international partners to attract them to invest. In the same context, KAEC will conduct a study identifying the ways to best provide competitive contractual incentives that will attract and retain investors.

WTTC’s annual global summit is the most influential travel and tourism event on its calendar, and this year, industry leaders gathered with key government representatives to continue aligning efforts to support the sector’s recovery and move forwards towards a safer, more resilient, inclusive, and sustainable future.

The summit activities were organized in cooperation between the Ministry of Tourism and Invest Saudi (Saudi Arabia’s nation-wide investment attraction brand, which was developed and launched as one of the initiatives to realize the objectives of Vision 2030) to present investment opportunities in Saudi Arabia’s travel and tourism sectors, helping to build partnerships between the public and private sectors. The event also included the signing of several MoUs between MISA and the Ministry of Tourism with a number of government entities and private sector companies.