A Travel and vacations forum. TravelBanter

If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Go Back   Home » TravelBanter forum » Travel Regions » Europe
Site Map Home Authors List Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read Web Partners

Saudi Arabia opens its doors to tourists



 
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #31  
Old May 18th, 2006, 01:02 PM posted to rec.travel.europe
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Saudi Arabia opens its doors to tourists


The Reid wrote:

Following up to PTravel

Saudi Arabia wouldn't issue visas to Jews,


no Jews, women treated badly, non Muslims excluded from the two
main sites and they think they are a modern country, talk about
deluded.



Libya is a paradise compared to it...

--
Best
Greg

  #32  
Old May 18th, 2006, 01:10 PM posted to rec.travel.europe
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Saudi Arabia opens its doors to tourists


Dave Frightens Me wrote:

On 17 May 2006 09:27:00 -0700, "Gregory Morrow"
wrote:


Tom Peel wrote:

Isn't it interesting that the countries with the largest oil reserves
are the ones that are planning for a future without oil, while the rest
of the world blunders onwards as if there were tomorrow.



Well, Canada seems to be doing a good job. Can't say the same for
Russia, Nigeria, etc.

I can't imagine much interest in Saudi tourism -- unless one is
interested in camel races, etc...in any case Dubai, etc. will offer
pretty stiff competition for the traveller's pocketbook for the
foreseeable future...


Jihad tours?



Yes, you could watch adulterers, gays, and Christians being stoned or
beheaded...LOTS of THRILLS!

Or you could visit Mecca during the Haj and watch the crowds stampede
themselves to death!



I hate to say it, but after much consideration, my opinion of muslims
is coming on par with yours. They truly are all ****ed in the head.



They all suffer from some kind of psychosis...and they are SO bloody
single - minded.

--
Best
Greg

  #33  
Old May 18th, 2006, 01:15 PM posted to rec.travel.europe
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Saudi Arabia opens its doors to tourists


Gregory Morrow wrote:
The Reid wrote:

Following up to PTravel

Saudi Arabia wouldn't issue visas to Jews,


no Jews, women treated badly, non Muslims excluded from the two
main sites and they think they are a modern country, talk about
deluded.



Libya is a paradise compared to it...


where would America be without Saudi Arabia ?

  #34  
Old May 18th, 2006, 01:27 PM posted to rec.travel.europe
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Saudi Arabia opens its doors to tourists


eetinBelgië wrote:

Gregory Morrow wrote:
The Reid wrote:

Following up to PTravel

Saudi Arabia wouldn't issue visas to Jews,

no Jews, women treated badly, non Muslims excluded from the two
main sites and they think they are a modern country, talk about
deluded.



Libya is a paradise compared to it...


where would America be without Saudi Arabia ?



I much prefer Canada :-) :


from the May 12, 2006 edition -
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0512/p04s01-woam.html


Newest hot spot for oil production: Canada

Last month, a Texas-Illinois pipeline built to bring oil north reversed
direction to take Alberta oil south.

By Fred Langan | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

"FORT MCMURRAY, ALBERTA - More expensive to process than the light
crude oil of the Middle East, Alberta's oil sands have long remained a
largely untapped resource. But with oil at $70 a barrel, it has become
economically feasible to extract the thick, sticky bitumen that in
former years was used to seal native people's canoes - not fuel a
global economy.

Only Saudi Arabia, with 259 billion barrels, has larger oil reserves
than the Florida-sized patch that surrounds this Canadian outpost. And
a pipeline already exists to carry the oil to a key market: the United
States.

Over the next five years, oil companies from Exxon Mobil to France's
Total are expected to invest C$60 billion in oil sands. Earlier this
week, Shell Canada announced a takeover of Canadian oil-sands producer
BlackRock Ventures, valued at $2.4 billion Canadian ($2.17 billion).

Production in Alberta is up 61 percent over the past four years. This
year, Alberta's oil sands are expected to produce 1.2 million barrels a
day, roughly equal to the production of Texas.

"The oil sands ... represent a turning point in the history of energy,
and a switch to synthetic [chemically processed] sources of oil," says
Peter Tertzakian, chief energy economist at the Calgary-based energy
consultancy ARC Financial.

Industry experts say new technology could greatly increase output,
providing a significant source of secure oil for the United States.
Just last month, a pipeline built to carry oil north from the Gulf of
Mexico to Midwest refineries, reversed direction to take Alberta oil
south.

"We can double our production and go for another 45 years," says Jim
Carter, president of Syncrude Canada Ltd., the world's largest oil
sands operator. "There is relatively new technology that could expand
production, but there is still a lot to be mined by surface methods."


From natural resource to final product


Huge swaths of the boreal forest cover Alberta's deposits, concentrated
in three locations: Peace River to the west of Fort McMurray; Cold Lake
to the southeast, on the Saskatchewan border; and - by far the largest
- the Athabasca region surrounding Fort McMurray, the town at the
center of oil sands production.

Syncrude - a joint venture of seven firms - estimates that those
deposits contain 175 billion recoverable barrels of oil.

Optimists such as the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board say the
reserves could be 10 times that if new technology succeeds in
separating the oil from the sand in hard-to-reach underground deposits.

Syncrude and other companies, from Shell to Suncor, are stripping away
the top layer of the earth to get at the bitumen that contains oil.
They use giant shovels that scoop up 80 to 90 tons at a time, dropping
the earth into the giant yellow Caterpillar 797B, the largest truck in
the world. It is as tall as a two-story house and its tires cost
$60,000 each. It never leaves the property; its weight would wreck the
local roads.

Each 400-ton load will produce 200 barrels of oil once it's been put
through the crusher. Other sites in Alberta use more complex methods of
getting at the bitumen that is too deep to mine. High-temperature steam
is pumped down into the oil sands deposits to liquefy the bitumen,
which is then pumped to the surface.

However it's extracted, all bitumen has to be transformed into oil in a
process called upgrading. There are several different steps in
upgrading, all of them using a lot of energy, usually natural gas.
Itcosts $23 to $26 a barrel - depending on the project - to produce
light oil from sticky goo of the oil sands.

With oil at current prices, the shares of firms such as Canadian
Natural Resources and Suncor have been soaring on the Toronto Stock
Exchange. Some investment analysts warn there could be problems for the
oil-sands operators, since their costs - natural gas to "cook" the
bitumen during the refining process and diesel fuel to run their
equipment - are rising.


Environmental concerns

Environmentalists, meanwhile, are concerned about the effects of
oil-sands production, though oil sands firms say they will return it to
pristine condition in the long run.

"With projections that oil-sands production will grow from 1 million to
more than 5 million barrels per day over the next 25 years, the air,
land, and water of Alberta's northeastern boreal forest is at risk of
severe environmental degradation," said the Pembina Institute, an
Alberta-based environmental organization, in a statement on its
website.

The giant smokestacks at the refineries send black smoke into the air
that stretches for miles in the clear blue sky above the forest.

"The proposed tar-sands developments will tear a hole in Canada's lungs
- our vital boreal forest ecosystem," said Lindsay Telfer of Canada's
Sierra Club.

And a native group that lives just north of the project has said it
isn't safe to fish in the Athabasca River, due to pollution from not
just the oil sands but also paper mills.


No gold-rush exodus ... yet

But the oil-sands operators and local government leaders are focused on
another problem: labor shortages.

"Our biggest problem is finding housing for the people who are coming
here," says Melissa Blake, mayor of Fort McMurray.

On average, 100 people a week arrive in this town of 61,000 looking for
work.

There is also a transient population of as many as 12,000 that commutes
to work from other parts of Canada, staying in rented space for weeks
on end.

Workers are so hard to come by that unskilled people in fast-food
restaurants are paid C$14 ($12.70) an hour, double the minimum wage.

The Fort McKay Group, run by a Indian tribe, pays trained cooks in its
catering service as much as C$40 ($36.30) an hour.

The average cost of a small house - 1,200 square feet - in Fort
McMurray is C$418,000 ($380,000), more expensive than most big cities.

Rents for small apartments can be C$1,000 ($900) a month.

"The price of oil drives growth in Fort McMurray. And at these prices
we expect our [permanent] population to grow to 100,000 by 2012," says
Mayor Blake."

/

  #35  
Old May 18th, 2006, 01:32 PM posted to rec.travel.europe
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Planning for a future without oil (was: Saudi Arabia opens its doorsto tourists)

Gregory Morrow schrieb:

Isn't it interesting that the countries with the largest oil reserves
are the ones that are planning for a future without oil, while the rest
of the world blunders onwards as if there were tomorrow.




Well, Canada seems to be doing a good job. Can't say the same for
Russia, Nigeria, etc.


Norway seems to be quite okay in this point.

Regards, ULF
  #36  
Old May 18th, 2006, 01:33 PM posted to rec.travel.europe
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Saudi Arabia opens its doors to tourists


eetinBelgië wrote:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/ma...ixtrvhome.html

Saudi Arabia opens its doors to tourists
By Teresa Machan (Filed: 13/05/2006)


Saudi Arabia hopes to attract a million visitors a year with the help
of a new tourism visa.


Eighteen approved tour operators in the kingdom have begun offering
visa services as part of a series of tourism initiatives announced last
week at the Arabian Travel Market in Dubai. The Saudi government is
also to begin issuing permits for tour guides from next month.

Until now, Saudi Arabia has been a place where people go to work rather
than play: the population of 24 million includes seven million foreign
workers, 24,000 of them Britisf nationals. Alcohol is banned, as is
photography of government buildings and palaces. Islamic principles and
social customs are strictly observed and the country adheres to Sharia
law, which allows corporal and capital punishment.

In line with its Middle Eastern neighbours, the Saudi government has
recognised the potential economic benefits of tourism as world oil
reserves dwindle.

Raed Habiss, managing director of one of the tour operators,
Destinations of the Kingdom, said Saudi Arabia was keen to attract
British visitors and would offer attractive rates to travel agents.

Among the first deals on offer was seven nights at a five-star hotel in
Jeddah, including guided tours, from £750 (excluding flights).

"It is a country of cultural and geographical diversity," Mr Habiss
said. "As well as coast, mountains and desert, we have spectacular
heritage sites, unexplored dive sites and theme parks designed by
Disney engineers." Wildlife includes the Arabian leopard and the oryx.

Hoteliers are also showing confidence in Saudi Arabia. Hilton has
chosen Jeddah for its first all-suite property, to open later this
month, and the Swiss chain Mövenpick has signed contracts for three
properties in the country, including a five-star hotel in Yanbu on the
Red Sea coast. The luxury American chain Rosewood is to open a third
hotel in Jeddah, which, in a first for the country, will have a
dedicated female floor staffed entirely by women.

Last month, Bmi began a three-times weekly service from Heathrow to
Jeddah to complement a similar service to Riyadh, launched last year. A
spokesman said there had been a steady increase in passengers using the
Riyadh service and similar traffic was expected to Jeddah.

A Saudi Arabian low-cost airline, Sama, is due to be launched this
summer.

Mr Habiss said that concerns over Saudi Arabia's less-than-favourable
image overseas were unfounded. "Saudi Arabia is part of the modern
world now. We cannot continue to be isolated. The Western perception is
different from the reality. Saudis are known for their hospitality, and
visitors who come will feel very differently."

Male and female visitors will have to cover up. Foreign females must
don the full-length abaya, and women under 40 must be accompanied by a
male relative.

A tourist visa can be issued as part of a package to groups of a
minimum four people.

No British tour operators have immediate plans to feature Saudi Arabia,
but Kuoni, which offers trips to Oman, Jordan, Lebanon and the UAE,
will wait to gauge demand.


Saudi Arabia! What a fun place to visit. Lets go to the market place, I
hear there's a beheading of an adulterer scheduled for 10 AM, followed
by the whipping of a woman who carelessly exposed her wrist. Then we
have the stoning of a Christian (best hide the rosary beads dear), then
a chap accused of stealing a tomato is scheduled to lose his right
hand.

  #37  
Old May 18th, 2006, 01:37 PM posted to rec.travel.europe
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Planning for a future without oil (was: Saudi Arabia opens its doors to tourists)


Ulf Kutzner wrote:

Gregory Morrow schrieb:

Isn't it interesting that the countries with the largest oil reserves
are the ones that are planning for a future without oil, while the rest
of the world blunders onwards as if there were tomorrow.




Well, Canada seems to be doing a good job. Can't say the same for
Russia, Nigeria, etc.


Norway seems to be quite okay in this point.



Yes, Norway is so lucky they didn't even have to bother joining that
pesky EU...that way their petro riches don't have to go to subsidise
Greek road projects and Polish farmers and such :-)

--
Best
Greg

  #38  
Old May 18th, 2006, 02:54 PM posted to rec.travel.europe
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Saudi Arabia opens its doors to tourists


Gregory Morrow wrote:
eetinBelgië wrote:

Gregory Morrow wrote:
The Reid wrote:

Following up to PTravel

Saudi Arabia wouldn't issue visas to Jews,

no Jews, women treated badly, non Muslims excluded from the two
main sites and they think they are a modern country, talk about
deluded.


Libya is a paradise compared to it...


where would America be without Saudi Arabia ?



I much prefer Canada :-) :


cheaper to invade

  #39  
Old May 18th, 2006, 08:33 PM posted to rec.travel.europe
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Saudi Arabia opens its doors to tourists

Tom Peel wrote:

eetinBelgië schrieb:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/ma...006/05/13/etne
wssaudi.xml&sSheet=/travel/2006/05/17/ixtrvhome.html

Saudi Arabia opens its doors to tourists
By Teresa Machan (Filed: 13/05/2006)

[]
Isn't it interesting that the countries with the largest oil reserves
are the ones that are planning for a future without oil, while the rest
of the world blunders onwards as if there were tomorrow.


Saudi tourism as 'planning for the future'- this in a country which
still can't decide whether or not to allow women to sell women's
underwear to other women? Yeah, right.

--
David Horne- http://www.davidhorne.net
usenet (at) davidhorne (dot) co (dot) uk
http://homepage.mac.com/davidhornecomposer http://soundjunction.org
  #40  
Old May 18th, 2006, 09:15 PM posted to rec.travel.europe
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Saudi Arabia opens its doors to tourists

Dave Frightens Me writes:

On 18 May 2006 10:13:01 +0100, Des Small
wrote:

Dave Frightens Me writes:

but after much consideration, my opinion of muslims
is coming on par with yours. They truly are all ****ed in the head.


Even granting, which I wouldn't, the arab peninsula, every single
Muslim in Bosnia, Turkey, Indonesia, past and present is or was ****ed
in the head? I could stand to be reminded of your methodology at this
point.


Methodology? I'm just nuturing a prejudice. Don't pretend you don't
have 'em too!


Prejudices are like rude bits; everyone has them, but it isn't
considered polite to wave them around in public.

Des
 




Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off
Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Farangs describe the Disaster to BBC [email protected] Asia 62 December 31st, 2004 06:34 PM
Inbound tourists advised to cancel trips to Thailand [email protected] Asia 0 December 27th, 2004 09:29 PM
US fingerprint & photograph all foreign visitors except those on visa waiver Howard Long Air travel 70 January 12th, 2004 12:23 AM
Saudi Police Foil Airliner Attack Fly Guy Air travel 1 December 31st, 2003 05:20 AM
U.S. Urges Citizens to Leave Saudi Arabia Meghan Powers Air travel 2 December 18th, 2003 05:18 PM


All times are GMT +1. The time now is 11:58 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.6.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright ©2004-2024 TravelBanter.
The comments are property of their posters.