Riyadh (UNA/SPA) – The Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA) today signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Ministry of Tourism to establish a Center of Excellence for Artificial Intelligence at the ministry’s headquarters; with the aim of supporting the activation and development of artificial intelligence technologies in operational processes to enhance the quality of the tourism sector, which seeks to achieve the goals of Saudi Vision 2030.

The MoU was signed by the Head of the National Data Management Office, Mr. Al-Rabdi bin Fahd Al-Rabdi, and the Assistant Minister of Tourism, Anas bin Abdullah Al-Sulaie, during the third edition of the Global Artificial Intelligence Summit hosted by the capital, Riyadh.

The MoU stipulated the development of a methodology for integrating data and artificial intelligence applications to evaluate activities and projects in the tourism sector; with the aim of reaching global status in this vital and rapidly growing sector, which constitutes an important economic tributary.

The Ministry of Tourism is looking forward to benefiting from the services provided by “SDAIA” as part of its efforts to increase the number of annual tourists to 150 million by 2030, support the GDP by 10%, and generate about 1.6 million job opportunities, while increasing the contribution of the private sector and attracting foreign direct investment to contribute to supporting non-oil revenues.

“SDAIA” is working to lead the national trend for data and artificial intelligence to contribute to the advancement of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to leadership among economies based on data and artificial intelligence, and is intensifying its efforts to contribute to raising the Kingdom’s position within global indicators related to data and artificial intelligence.

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