Prince Sultan made this statement after a SCTA study revealed that more than 157,000 visitors, who spent SR34 million during their stay, were logged at the fifth Souk Okaz organized in Taif from Sept. 20 to Oct. 3.
“The findings of the study strongly indicates that the Souk Okaz is on the road to become not only the most important domestic tourist spot but a great attraction for the Arab and international tourists,” Prince Sultan said, while commending the report prepared by the Tourist Information and Research Center (MAS) a subsidiary of the SCTA.
The prince added that the report guaranteed that Souk Okaz has a promising future as one of the most important hub of events related to culture, literature, economy, trade and business. The SCTA is a major partner in developing, regulating and running the activities of the souk. It also owns the land where the souk is organized.
The study was prepared after meeting with a number of tourists at the souk. It put the number of visitors to the souk at 157,228 in 2011 registering a nine percent increase over 2010 figures.
The Kingdom’s National Day, Friday Sept. 23, pulled in 31,456 tourists — the largest number of people to visit the souk on a single day. The second highest number of visitors to the souk on a given day was Sep. 29. On that day 16,980 tourists visited.
The study said the tourists came from 41 places in the Kingdom apart from some foreign countries. While 36 percent of the total visitors were from Makkah province, 24 percent were from Jeddah alone.
The study also found that 78 percent of the visitors to the Taif city went to the souk, while only 12 percent visitors came to the city with other purposes. The study said while 72 percent of the tourists accompanied their families, 10 percent of visitors were single and 18 percent were with their friends.
The study also noted that 25 percent of the tourists learned about the souk from newspapers, 13 percent from televisions, five percent through Internet sites, eight percent from magazines and 19 percent from word of mouth advertisement — mostly from others who had visited the souk, the report said.
The average individual expense of a tourist to the souk was put at SR218 while 40 percent of it was spent on shopping, 23 percent on food and drinks, 17 percent for lodging and 10 percent for transportation.
Most of the tourists said they found the cost of services, transportation, amusements, food and drinks and shopping as normal while 50 percent only believed that the lodging cost was normal.
About 84 percent of the visitors were so happy about the experience that they said they would revisit the location, the report said. About 42 percent of the visitors who participated in the study rated that tourism facility in Taif as excellent, 45 percent very good and 12 percent good.
The participating visitors also recommended more diversified amusement events, extension of the souk’s duration, restaurants with quality food, arranging the souk during vacation times and improved health services besides special activities for women and children and effective monitoring of pricing.
