This year’s Jeddah Summer Festival in Saudi Arabia has lured fewer visitors and revenues than the previous summers, disclosed the event‘s organizing committee. The month and a half long event features leisure attractions and ongoing music celebrations.
The festival, which opened in mid-June, managed to attract only 1.5 million visitors compared with 2.3 million last year, reported Al-Hayat. Some sources attribute this decline to the hike in ticket prices. The first Summer Festival in 1999 attracted 1.2 million visitors.
Last year the Summer Festival generated business worth SR1.769 billion ($471.7 million). Of this, retail traders grabbed the lion’s share of SR721 million, followed by recreation centers.
Events such as the Jeddah festival are part of the kingdom’s campaign to attract foreign tourists, as well as appealing to locals to choose Saudi destinations for their annual holiday. Hopes were also pinned on this year’s Summer Festival to attract enough buyers who would draw the local gold market out of a slump. — (MENA Report)
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