JEDDAH, 27 July 2004 — The Jeddah Marketing Board (JMB), an arm of the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce & Industry (JCCI), announced a new drive to attract more people for medical treatment and shopping in Jeddah.
Imad Mugharbel, JMB’s chief executive officer, said yesterday that a study conducted by the Supreme Committee for Tourism (SCT) had shown that only one percent of visitors to the Makkah region in general and Jeddah in particular came for medical purposes and only two percent for shopping.
“This finding encourages us to join our efforts with the two sectors to raise these percentages, as one of JMB’s goals is to make Jeddah the first choice for medical treatment in the Middle East,” he said.
Mugharbel said he was not satisfied with the low percentage of visitors in the shopping sector, taking into consideration that Jeddah has attractive malls and the city ranks first as a commercial center in the Kingdom.
He added that JCCI, represented by JMB, was cooperating with the Jeddah Municipality to implement the economic part of the strategic developmental plan, prepared by the municipality.
According to Dr. Suleiman Al-Sudairy, SCT’s vice secretary-general for planning and organization, the study showed that 90 percent of the visitors to Makkah expressed satisfaction with their visit to the area.
They ranked their visits as “excellent” and “very good”. Umrah visitors comprised 39 percent of the total visitors. He said 70 percent of visitors spent one to seven nights in the Makkah area.
Al-Sudairy said tourism represents 13 percent of the economic activity in the region.
Mugharbel said the official study results show that Makkah and Jeddah attract most visitors, and 50 to 60 percent of them considered the service level as “excellent,” while 30 percent said it was “very good”. He considered the results as a strong indication of a bright future for tourism.
He said hotels in the area represent 50 to 66 percent of the total hotels in the Kingdom and they perform an important role in providing services to the visitors, as well as to the tourism and entertainment service sectors in general.
SCT recently organized a workshop that was attended by more than 80 tourism investors and operators.
Dr. Sudairy said it was aimed at providing information about the tourism development program in the Makkah region to the industry and to get the feedback and suggestions of the industry professionals.
