Awareness drive needed to rectify ‘behaviors’ of some Arab tourists

Sultan Al-Sughair

DAMMAM: About 12 million Saudi tourists left the Kingdom last year to spend their holidays in other countries, spending about SR61 billion on a yearly basis.

However, negative behaviors by some Saudi tourists abroad brought about wide reactions there to the extent that some countries want to reduce the number of visas for Saudis.
In this regard, Khaled Al-Saif, of the Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage in Hail, said: “Tourism in any country has several controls and laws that must be followed by all. Saudi citizens both inside the Kingdom and abroad should be good models representing their society, so these negative behaviors must be studied and modified by the concerned authorities.”
“Among these rejected behaviors, some Saudi tourists dump waste in public places, wear inappropriate clothes, dance in the streets and disturb the public, smoke shisha in the most prestigious tourist places, set up barbecues in public parks and hold car shows resulting in indiscriminate noise,” he said.
Saad Al-Fayad, a researcher and educational consultant said: “Tourists should adhere to good morals in their words and deeds, commit to good manners, stay away from what diminishes their personalities, maintain their identities and respect local customs and traditions.”
Abdulaziz Al-Ghazi, a municipal council member, expressed his frustration of these uncivilized acts committed by a few Saudi citizens inside and outside the Kingdom, stressing that there is an urgent need to study the reasons behind such behaviors.
Moreover, educational specialist Ghadeer Al-Sakri said: “Leaving waste in public parks, violation of regulations and making nuisance are all behaviors that are not tolerated in most countries, delivering a negative image of the Gulf citizen, Arabs, and Muslims in general.”
The writer Seham Al-Otaibi said that travel means that you move with your nationality, culture and religion outside, so every act doesn’t only represent you, but your religion, culture and environment as well.
To solve this problem, Saudi media specialist Majed Tarifi suggested moving away from traditional awareness messages and taking advantage of celebrities to spread proper awareness messages, especially since the main targeted audience is the youth who perpetrate these adolescent practices.
Kholoud Abdulaziz, an educational supervisor, refused to justify these actions as a result of repression, suggesting an awareness campaign carried out by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to make tourists aware of the customs and laws of foreign countries and the importance of commitment to Arab and Islamic morals.
Describing them as negative individual behaviors, psychologist Mariam Haji said that awareness campaigns are significant in changing wrong behaviors, stressing that many Arab citizens are not committed to the foreign country’s laws, as the main reasons for negative behavior is the lack of respect for laws, negligence, indifference, and lack of family role, requiring cooperation among all concerned authorities to deal with this issue.