RIYADH, 13 June 2004 — An estimated 4.5 million Saudi tourists are expected to leave the Kingdom for their holidays during this summer.

“Last year, Saudi tourists spent around SR60 billion during their summer holidays abroad but this year their expenditures are likely to increase by another eight percent due to the increase in fares, accommodation, travel and transport rates,” said Nasser Al-Tayyar, chairman of the Al-Tayyar Group of Companies.

Around 70 percent will visit countries in the region including Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the United Arab Emirates while the rest look for European and Southeast Asian destinations. Popular Asian destinations include Malaysia, Singapore, Maldives and Sri Lanka.

Al-Tayyar predicted that Malaysia will be the No. 1 destination in Asia during this summer for around 100,000 Saudi tourists.

“The recent terror attacks on Westerners coupled with the regular summer traffic has triggered an outflow of traffic of passengers from the Kingdom,” said S.M. Nayagam from Al-Moayed Travels.

British Airways introduced one more flight from Riyadh in addition to its weekly three flights to cope with the rush.

“It’s true that a good number of families from Western compounds are traveling home, but they are all going on a return ticket,” said Shibly Jawharsha from Al-Muhsin Travels.

The Chief Operations Manager at Unique Choice, Zawfir Ziyard, who deals with accommodations abroad for the tourists from the Kingdom, told Arab News that this year traffic to Asian destinations is picking up because the SARS threat has gone.

Here in the Kingdom, Ziyard said popular domestic destinations include Abha, Taif, Makkah, Madinah and Baha.

“The common trend in domestic tourism is that the people in the Central Province move out for Western or Eastern destinations during the summer holidays,” he said.

Jeddah and Dammam are the most popular cities in the summer.

The Supreme Commission for Tourism has launched a number of programs to encourage domestic tourism. Summer festivals are being organized by the respective regions in Abha and Jeddah to attract the locals in various parts of the Kingdom during this season.