JEDDAH, 17 May — A top businessman in Madinah has accused the Kingdom’s diplomatic missions abroad of obstructing the influx of tourists to the city during the shopping festivals in summer. This has resulted in a loss of at least SR400 million in estimated income to businessmen in the region during last year’s Madinah Summer Festival, Abdul Rahman Al-Ruhaily, chairman of the Madinah Chamber of Commerce and Industry, told Arab News.
The regional shopping festivals face hardships because of the inability of Saudi consulates to respond favorably to inquiries from prospective tourists, he said.
“Some Saudi embassies and consulates are considered the primary cause of the failure of our festivals. They failed to realize that the festivals are part of strategic projects aimed at pumping billions of riyals into our markets which will help, in turn, the growth of the national economy,” Al-Ruhaily said.
The businessman pointed out that last year’s festival yielded a sales revenue of only SR800 million, compared to SR1.2 billion in the previous year.
Al-Ruhaily said he could not think of any other reason for the failure of the festivals in the past. Not satisfied with the response to the previous festivals, the organizers had set up a special committee to evaluate each festival and identify its positive and negative aspects. The committee recommended more effective policies to make the festivals a remarkable success.
The organizers had expected better results with more than SR1 billion in sales revenue during the last festival. The chamber chief said the results were disappointing, considering the huge efforts made to attract tourists to the city. The organizers had expected at least half a million visitors with a spending estimated at SR1.5 billion.
A sum of SR10 million was earmarked for promotion programs, which included advertising in the Arab and non-Arab newspapers and satellite channels. Special emphasis was put on religious tourism, as the city and its surrounding areas have many archeological sites which are religiously important.
Appealing to the consulates to speed up their functioning style, Al-Ruhaily said the bureaucratic hurdles discourage people in those countries to visit the Kingdom.
The organizers of the Madinah Festival have also urged the Saudi missions abroad not to deny the Kingdom billions of riyals in tourism revenue annually in this way, Al-Ruhaily said. He added that Saudi diplomats should double their efforts to minimize hardships faced by people intending to visit the Kingdom.
