Saudi Arabia Opens Door to a Trickle of Visitors

From Memphis, Tenn., to Memphis, Egypt, few corners of the world are free of the trappings of global tourism. Outfitters offer Borneo. Cruise lines approach Antarctica. Even U.S. nemesis Iran has started receiving American tourist groups in the last three years.

But what about Saudi Arabia?

Oil-rich and uninterested in the cultural compromises that usually come with entertaining foreigners, that kingdom’s leaders have long kept doors open to business travelers but closed to tourists. If you wanted stone-carved Nabatean ruins or Islamic landmarks--both of which Saudi Arabia has--you went to Jordan or Egypt. For a glimpse of Arabia and Islamic society, you ventured into Syria or stopped at Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. The U.S. State Department’s consular information sheet warns travelers that Saudi Arabia “does not issue visas for tourism.”

But look again. Although the holy cities of Mecca and Medina are for Muslims only and Saudi officials are still turning away individual tourists, the government has quietly and cautiously begun granting visas to a handful of affluent, education-oriented American and European tour groups.

“I think the country has matured and the society has matured. Now the society is ready,” said Abdullah al Awwd, the Saudi deputy consul general in Los Angeles. “We know tourism has many positives. But at the same time, it has negatives. Look at Bangkok,” he said, noting that problems with drugs, alcohol and prostitution are often blamed on tourist demand.

In 1999, he estimated, between 250 and 1,000 Americans visited Saudi Arabia as tourists. The cost of their visits ran to about $7,000 per person for a two-week itinerary, including meals and air fare from New York.

Among the companies and organizations offering trips:

* Smithsonian Study Tours (telephone [877] 338-8687; https:// www.si.edu/tsa/sst), which last month sent its first group--a sellout U.S. contingent of 35 travelers. The organization has 14-day trip departing Jan. 13 (already sold out), another on Oct. 12, 2000 (which had four spots open at press time). The price, including air fare from New York: $7,220 per person, double occupancy. (Single supplement is $450.)

* New York-based Lindblad Special Expeditions (tel. [800] 397-3348, https://www.expeditions .com), which enters the market in 2000 with four 15-day tours, departing Jan. 20, Feb. 3, Oct. 26 and Nov. 9. Prices are $7,450 per person, double occupancy, including air fare from New York.

* In San Francisco, Peck Judah Travel Service Inc. (tel. [800] 336-7790 or [415] 421-3505; no Internet address), which took a Harvard alumni group to the country earlier this month. It tentatively plans 15-day Saudi tours on Feb. 13 and April 16. Brochure prices run $6,557 to $6,657 per person, double occupancy, including air fare from New York.

* The connection behind many Saudi tours (including the Smithsonian trips) is PVA Travel Planning in Palo Alto (tel. [800] 795-5700 or [650] 812-7355; no Internet address). PVA President Peter Voll, who was the head of Stanford University’s alumni travel program for 19 years, made his first contacts with Saudi authorities when negotiating a Jidda port call on a Red Sea cruise in 1992.

In February 1998, Voll was invited on a Saudi scouting trip. Early this year, a few months after Harvard’s alumni group made the breakthrough visit, Voll brought his first tour to Saudi Arabia, a Stanford alumni group.

“This country is loaded,” Voll says. “The archeology . . . the old caravan routes . . . you have all this ancient history from the time 3,000 to 4,000 years ago when people started trading.”

Still, Saudi Arabia isn’t an easy visit. The nation is a kingdom ruled by Islamic laws. Social norms are as restrictive to women as Iran’s, perhaps more so. Tour operators typically provide foreign women with an abaya, a black nylon robe that is always worn. In marketplaces, Western women are urged to wear head scarves. Saudi women are banned from driving. And on public buses, notes Gordon Robison, author of the Lonely Planet guide to the Arab Gulf States, women ride in back, behind screens.

Live theater and cinema are illegal, as are alcohol and pork. Non-Muslims are barred from mosques, and the king’s family rules: There are no elections.

Since 1938, when the first oil concession revenues began rolling in from U.S. oil companies, the Saudi kingdom (population 17 million) has had a unique advantage. Billions of dollars in oil revenues have allowed the royal family to build a nation of modern infrastructure, including plenty of airports, roads and lodgings.

Prudence Clendenning, deputy manager of Smithsonian Study Tours and veteran of a recent Saudi tour, reports that the trip makes sense for “someone who is open to new experiences--and respects the Saudi religious and cultural restrictions.”

(In the first Smithsonian group, most travelers were in their 60s, 70s and 80s and were widely traveled. Women outnumbered men 23 to 12.)

Among the stops on most tours:

* Riyadh, a mostly modern capital, with a new national museum. Outside the city lies Ad Dir’iyah, the 15th century archeological ruin that served as a seat of power into the 19th century.

* Toward Jordan and Israel lies Madain Salah, the top Nabatean ruin site in the country. The 140 tombs carved into stone there date back more than 1,800 years and are said to rival the renowned ruins at Petra, Jordan--without the crowds. Nearby lie remnants of the Hejaz railway, silenced by T.E. Lawrence and his troops in the 1916 Arab Revolt.

* Jidda, on the Red Sea, offers a camel market, a traditional souk (marketplace) and houses built of carved wood and Red Sea coral. As a gateway to Mecca, Jidda also features a striking Haj center, which receives pilgrims from throughout the Muslim world.

* In the country’s southwest stand the evergreen forests of Asir National Park. In the same area, surrounded by mountain scenery and relatively cool weather, is Abha, provincial capital and a magnet for domestic tourism.

Christopher Reynolds welcomes comments and suggestions, but cannot respond individually to letters and calls. Write Travel Insider, Los Angeles Times, Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles 90053, or send e-mail to chris.reynolds@latimes.com.