Hyatt Hotels’ operations in Saudi Arabia have joined the Ministry of Tourism’s Hospitality Ambassadors programme, aimed at developing national talent for the kingdom’s hospitality sector, the company said on July 8.
The move ties an international hotel operator into Riyadh’s effort to build a domestic workforce capable of staffing a rapidly expanding tourism industry, a bottleneck the kingdom faces as it opens tens of thousands of hotel rooms under its Vision 2030 diversification plan.
The programme contributes to qualifying Saudi nationals and enabling them to gain international expertise, enhancing the future of the hospitality sector and raising the quality of the tourism experience in the kingdom, Hyatt said in a post attributed to its Saudi operations.
Saudi Arabia has made workforce localisation, known as Saudisation, a central plank of its economic strategy, requiring companies across sectors to raise the share of nationals they employ. The tourism ministry has partnered with hotel groups and training bodies to expand the pool of qualified Saudi hospitality staff as the sector scales.
The company did not disclose the number of participants, the duration of the programme or financial terms.