Riyadh, Mar 9 (Arab News): The Saudi Commission for Heritage and Tourism (SCTH) has revealed early results for a number of initiatives launched to improve and expand the Kingdom’s tourism industry by 2020.

A report, published with the National Center for Tourism Human Resources Development (Takamul), has revealed that since its launch 474 female students benefitted from the “Your Job...Your Scholarship” program, and that 9,631 had taken part in training provided as part of the National Transformation Program 2020 (NTP).

The SCTH and Takamul plan to send a further 1,200 students abroad to study various disciplines as part of the scholarship scheme, and to train 25,000 people via the NTP by 2020.

The report also noted that 205 female tour guides had benefited from workshops run by Takamul, studying at 14 colleges across the Kingdom where tourism, hospitality, travel and event organization feature on the curriculum. Takamul aims to train 1,400 guides by 2020.

Meanwhile, the Saudi Tourism Information and Research Center has revealed that the number of female field researchers currently working in the Kingdom has reached 80, whilst the Licenses General Authority claims 988 Saudi women are now licensed to practice tourist activities across the country.

The number of craftswomen registered in the National Program for the Development of Crafts and Handicrafts, it was revealed, stands at 3,961.