JEDDAH, 26 November 2002 — Saudis have been more inclined toward domestic tourism package programs in the past three years. Consequently the demand for the services of companies specialized in the industry has been on the increase.
The programs of the Resorts & Touristique Group, a leader in the offering domestic tourism packages, has attracted in the past 10 months 5,500 clients against 3,500 in the same period last year. While 90 percent of them were Saudis, 10 percent were expatriates and people form the Gulf.
The company's programs which are known as Saudi Vacation Program and Jeddah Vacation Program generated 12,300 tourist evenings under various tourist schemes marketed by the group across the Kingdom at the cost of SR8 million, according to Hassan Abdul Aziz Saqr, director general of the Tourism Resorts Group.
The program is executed through the National Vacation Company which has been established early this year. While the company is specialized in selling and managing tourist projects La Fountain company is specialized in managing and operating tourist resorts and hotels and Afwaj company for Umrah services.
The group, which has opened six branches across the Kingdom in the year, will open two more branches shortly.
The branches have a target of selling 20,000 nights before the end of the year thought 80 projects Kingdom wide, Saqr said.
Ibrahim Al-Rashid, director general of the National Vacation company said the all the tourist's projects have been very popular particularly in the seasons. He also noted that the Jeddah Vacations was inaugurated during the Jeddah Festival this year in conjunction with the Kano Travels with sponsorship of 10 Saudi and international companies and were marketed to the visitors of the festival through 350 travel agencies both in the Kingdom and Gulf.
Al-Rashid added that the tourism projects included packages for clients with competitive prices for families. More than 1,500 tourist nights were sold to Saudi families during the Jeddah festival.
La Fountain which was launched early in the year opened several projects in at Durrah Al-Aroos including the advanced solutions for the issues of owners and visitors to in collaboration with the administration of the Durrah Al-Aroos including the opening of the amusement and service projects in addition to organizing leasing operations for the units and villas. La Fountain's projects also include a hospitality institute to train Saudi youths on hospitality techniques.
