JEDDAH: With Saudi schools and other educational institutions closed for a week, shopping districts and malls are once again a scene of hectic activity.
“This is the time when Jeddah gets a large number of Saudis from across the Kingdom and they spend time and money in shopping,” Abdul Alwattar, a shop manager at Red Sea Mall, said over the weekend.
Many major shopping establishments have launched promotions, which began a few days before the vacation began. Such promotions are reaping a rich harvest for them, especially during the vacation period.
“Our sales turnover almost doubles during this period,” a supervisor at Ikea said. This is echoed by some other establishments.
Jarir Bookstore says its offer of an installment plan has worked wonders. “We have been selling laptops and mobile phones beyond our expectations this way,” a manager said.
Electro, an electronics showroom, said a couple of its recent promotions for electronics products were rewarding. “We offered a trade-in promotion for certain refrigerator, cooking range and television models, and the response has been overwhelming,” said its management.
HyperPanda said its offer of a promotion for food and other items is a great success. “The turnover is expected to be higher than expected,” said its manager.
Dealers in chocolates, perfumes and cosmetics say they always look forward to such school breaks because they are advantageous for them.
“We sell almost 50 percent more during such breaks than normal times,” a supervisor at a major perfumery said. Despite the skyrocketing gold prices, outlets at gold and jewelry souks say their sales have been steady and peak during such school vacations.
“No other city attracts so many visitors from within the Kingdom as Jeddah, and women make it a point to visit and purchase their choicest jewelry pieces,” Mohammed Alghamdi, a major gold dealer in downtown Balad said.
“While the week long school break is the best for us in terms of revenue, there can be no match for our turnover during the annual Eid Al-Fitr and Eid Al-Adha periods,” Khaled Bajandouh, who operates a chain of shops, said.
“We make it a point to visit Jeddah around this time every year; we come here to enjoy the weather and the seafront, and do shopping here, which is among the best anywhere,” said Khaled Mohammad Al-Nowaiser, a businessman from Khamis Mushayt, who is here with his large family.
In addition to visitors from across the Kingdom and elsewhere in the Gulf, the religious tourism sector is generated upward of $7 billion in annual revenues in 2009, and visitor traffic is set to grow by 6.5 percent in 2009-10, according to official agencies.
