“The initial indications from the tourism business during the Eid holidays are not encouraging,” Saeed Al-Bassami, chairman of the JCCI's Car Committee, told Arab News on Wednesday.

He said the demand for car rentals has been lower than expected this Haj season.

Disappearance of tourist festivals combined with frequent traffic snags caused by various ongoing road projects are other factors contributing to the fall in the demand for rented cars.

Although Arab News attempted to contact officials of the Society of District Centers, which organize many festivals with the help of volunteers, to learn about their efforts to make the vacation season attractive, the officials were not available for comments.

Hotel and apartment officials are also complaining of lukewarm demand for rooms despite the pleasant weather the city is expected to have during the Eid vacation.

A source in the local hotel business said the number of domestic tourists occupying hotels in the season were considerably less than the number of pilgrims staying in hotels before their onward journey to Makkah.

Abdul Salam Muhammad, who runs a tourist facility in Obhur, said he has not observed any surge in the number of tourists though the holidays started.

“This may be partly because the recent holiday season of Eid Al-Fitr coincided with a long school vacation has emptied the pockets of many families. The absence of impressive programs to attract tourists to Jeddah is also to blame,” Muhammad told Arab News. 

The falling trend in the number of domestic tourists is also confirmed by the increasing number of Saudis booking flight tickets to and rooms in tourist spots in neighboring Arab countries such as Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt during the Eid holidays, according to sources in the tourism and travel industry.

Anwar Muhammad, a worker in the travel industry, said tourism agencies started offering attractive vacation packages in foreign countries many weeks ago.

No schedule or programs of any municipal festival is in sight, though the Jeddah municipality announced earlier that it planned special programs for Eid in the Historical Districts.

However, the Health Department has announced that health centers in tourist locations such as Obhur, Dhahban and Thuwal will be working from early morning to late in the night during the Eid holidays.