Saudi prince unveils plans to welcome tourists

Saudi Arabia has plans to issue select visas to welcome tens of thousands of tourists a year as part of a sweeping national reform plan aimed at showcasing the country's rich heritage, including pre-Islamic sites, and encouraging Saudis to spend some of their tourist money at home.
A day after Saudi Arabia outlined its Vision 2030 plan to wean itself off dependence on oil, a top Saudi prince told The Associated Press how the country plans to develop its tourism industry over the coming years.
Prince Sultan Bin Salman, who is head of the Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage and the oldest living son of King Salman, said that while the country will be opening up, it will not be "totally open for everybody to just show up and come in."
"It is open for people that are doing business, for people working in Saudi Arabia, investing in Saudi Arabia, and people who are visiting for special purposes. And now it will be open for tourism again on a selected basis," he said.
Saudi Arabia currently does not issue tourist visas, though it ran a pilot program between 2006 and 2010 welcoming around 25,000 visitors annually to see Saudi Arabia's ancient archaeological sites and vast landscapes of mountains, coastline, valleys, volcanoes and deserts.