YEMEN TOURISM PROMOTION SEEKS ISO 9001 CERTIFICATION

SANA’A, June 02 (Saba)- Yemen Tourism Promotion Board (YTPB) has signed an agreement on rehabilitation for a certification of the International Standard for Quality Management ISO9001 to ensure continuity and quality of services provided in the field of tourism.

At the signing ceremony, Tourism Minister Nabil al-Faqih confirmed the importance of rehabilitation and self-development of the tourism sector staff to develop tourist services in Yemen.

Al-Faqih said that his ministry is keen to improve the efficiency of the YTPB in order to provide tourism quality services.

The agreement was signed by the newly appointed Executive Director of the YTPB Fatima al-Horaiby and Executive Director of the Quality Company Ltd. Ahmed Omar Bin Mubarak.

The Minister went on to say that the agreement aims to raise the level of the YTPB’s performance and efficiency required for all tourism operations and services.

The YTPB was established in 1999, as a result of a study conducted by the European commission focused on ways to develop tourism in Yemen.

The study stated that Yemen was very rich in terms of nature and culture tourism. However, the country was not investing and promoting its tourism resources efficiently to attract tourists.

The main task of YTPB is marketing and promoting the Yemeni tourism product overseas, especially in the main foreign tourism markets for Yemen.

The YTPB supports local festivals that aim to encourage the inbound tourism and present different tourism products in Yemen to citizens and foreigners.

Deputy Minister for Tourism Development Omar Babelgheth had unveiled Yemen is planning to build five large resorts and up to 44 hotels across the country over the next few years.

In 2009, 1.1 million tourists visited Yemen, with by far most of them from the Gulf and the remainder from Europe, the US and South East Asia,

Yemen has many tourism attraction factors, it is very rich in its culture, civilisation and heritage. Babelgheth said that the tourism sector is seeking to attract 1.5 million tourists a year by 2015 and bring in revenues of US$2 billion.

The YTPB was participating in 13 travel exhibitions around the world and conducted roadshows in five major European cities last year.

The tourism sector makes up around 2.5 to three percent of Yemen’s economy.

YA