Closed Kingdom Cracks a Door Open
Ethan Todras-Whitehill

If you were running a restrictive Islamic state where the women can�t drive and restaurants are segregated between families and single men, the last idea that might occur to you is to invite Westerners in to have a look. And yet, that�s exactly what the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is doing.

It used to be that tourists could visit Saudi Arabia only through the Discover Saudi Arabia program, run through Saudi Arabian Airlines. The visa process was slow and impenetrable, and tour operators could only book flights through that airline, greatly limiting options.

But last April the government passed a law allowing domestic travel agencies to bring in foreign tours. If all goes as hoped, the new arrangement will speed the visa process and give foreign tour operators greater flexibility. It is a small step, but one that reflects the Saudi government�s new interest in foreign tourism.

Though it lacks an iconic building like Petra�s Treasury (the site of the Holy Grail in �Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade�), it has many more structures than Petra does, and they are better preserved. Visiting can be a solitary and wondrous experience. �It�s not unusual for no one else to be in the whole site besides our group,� Mr. Parda said.

But the biggest draw of Saudi Arabia may be the closed nature of the country itself. The tour operators interviewed for this article said that the majority of clients who went on their Saudi tours were exceptionally well traveled, many having visited 100 countries. Saudi Arabia at this point is a place Western tourists go when they�re looking for something totally different, a culture little touched by the Western world.

On one tour to Saudi Arabia last April, a tour bus was passing a local auction in a town square near Dammam on the gulf coast when the tour leader, Rita Zawaideh, directed it to stop. Ms. Zawaideh, an Arab-American who runs Caravan-Serai Tours out of Seattle, began raising her hand to bid, and her mostly female tour group did the same, confusing and ultimately delighting the all-male crowd.

�They would joke and say: �Raise the prices! The Americans want to buy,� � said Ms. Zawaideh, �and then I go at them in Arabic and they say: �O.K.! We can�t raise the prices. We�ll lower the prices!� � The locals brought out tea and wanted to hear the tourists� impressions of the country, and the group ultimately purchased pottery, an old sword, an antique window and other items.

The act of observing an untouched culture, of course, inevitably touches it. Countries like Bhutan have kept out tourists for that reason. Saudi concern with preventing this kind of change is a reason it has been slow to consider granting independent tourist visas, which are not offered.

The country�s leaders are interested in encouraging the Saudis themselves to move around in their country, believing that the growth of a domestic tourism industry would actually solidify their culture. Families would have more options for traveling together and could see the diversity of their country, which Prince Sultan bin Salman thinks would make them recognize their national unity as �nothing less than a miracle.�

Still, the domestic tourists are �pathfinders� for the international tourists who will follow, according to the prince, and the government says it will monitor the response to the tourism from the local communities. �We�ve seen how things sometimes happening in a hurry can be detrimental to society and social change,� the prince said. �We�re not in a hurry to do more than we can swallow.�

For the time being, the experience of visiting Saudi Arabia includes conforming to its norms. No alcohol, pornography or proselytizing materials can be taken into the country. A woman under 30 cannot enter the country without a husband or brother. Women cannot walk about unaccompanied, and they must keep their bodies covered with abayas.

And the Saudis aren�t kidding about it. On a tour she led in 2006, Ms. Zawaideh said, she noticed some Europeans walking around with their husbands, probably business travelers, without abayas or head scarves, and she warned them that the husbands could be arrested for this offense. The women brushed her off, she said, and within an hour, she noticed security people talking with the couples, then taking the men away.

Ms. Zawaideh says that she has no such problem with her clients. Two women wore the abaya all the way to New York, and some found it had the advantages of helping them fit in and protecting against blowing sand.

Joyce Jolley, 76, a retired dental hygienist from Seattle, bought the most severe kind to take home, including a head covering with only an eye-slit opening and a sheer black veil to cover that -- more than what Saudi women are required to wear. �It was kind of an adventure,� she said.

From The New York Times on the Web (c) The New York Times Company. Reprinted with Permission.

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