JEDDAH, 23 June 2005 — The first Recreation & Leisure Fair (RALF), which recently concluded here, attracted more than 30,000 visitors. The fair witnessed travel and tourism companies, recreation centers and hotel firms competing with one another to present attractive package programs in order to win clients.
The exhibition, which was opened by Prince Abdul Aziz ibn Fahd ibn Abdullah, deputy secretary-general of the Supreme Commission for Tourism, was organized in order to promote national and domestic tourism. It featured a number of dynamic interactive indoor and outdoor tourist programs including beach volleyball, motorbike and quad stunt shows and scuba diving.
Ibrahim Al-Rashid, a tourism expert and general manager of the Resorts & Real Estate Group, said the new tourism programs presented by various companies had attracted a large number of visitors. He said the National Holidays Co., which is part of his group, introduced a new program aimed at cutting tourists’ expenses.
Khalil Abdul Rahman Bahadur, a member of the National Committee for Tourism, Haj & Umrah and owner of Bahadur Plaza in Hada, Taif, said his company was making attractive offers which catered to the needs of families and individuals. “Bahadur Plaza organizes contests for children and distributes prizes to winners,” he added.
Bahadur’s group offers a new program that allows tourists to rent rooms for a week at its five-star hotel for 10 years. By doing so, clients can also enjoy some 70 tourism programs being organized by the company.
Bahadur described Hada as one the most attractive resorts in Taif and expected more than two million tourists would visit it this summer.
Muhammad Al-Sharief of Taif Investment Company, which owns Al-Kar Tourist Village in Taif and the Hada cable car project, said his resort was attracting a large number of tourists and holidaymakers, including expatriates, from Jeddah and other parts of the country. There is a booking center in Jeddah which organizes weekly tourist trips to Taif.
“The program has received good response from expatriate families of various nationalities who intend to spend their weekends in the summer resort,” Sharief told Arab News. Participants in the program can enjoy the mountain scenes of Hada while sitting in cable cars, he added.
