The mid-term vacation was a bonanza and instrumental in generating income for the tourism and hospitality sector in addition to spurring the city’s economic activities.
The holidaymakers and visitors to the city have enjoyed a pleasant vacation free of security-related incidents during the period, Al-Madinah newspaper reported yesterday.
The tourism and hospitality sector in Jeddah was stagnant for some time with low economic activity before the spring vacation started.
During the vacation however the city witnessed a huge influx of visitors and vacationers that generated large revenues.
Most of the hotels, furnished apartments, rest houses and car rental firms have earned handsome profits that enabled them to offset some of the losses they incurred over the last few months.
Brig. Gen. Misfar Al-Joaid, media spokesman for the Jeddah police, said that there were no security-related issues, including crimes and accidents, reported during the mid-term vacation that started on March 22.
“All visitors and picnickers have spent their holidays in ease and comfort. Our intensified efforts to ensure safety and security at public places, including parks, commercial markets and on the Corniche, have been successful,” he said while noting that traffic patrol teams had a heavy task to ease traffic flow and extend services to the huge number of local residents and visitors to the city.
“All branches of the security forces doubled number of their men deployed in various tourist spots and busiest areas in the city. This contributed substantially in realizing an incident-free spring vacation,” he said.
There were more than a dozen festivals and other tourism activities during the mid-term vacation in various regions of the Kingdom.
With the support of governorates and the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities (SCTA), tourism development councils in various parts of the Kingdom turned the activities into cultural, educational, sportive and recreational festivities, catering to the tastes and entertainment of all segments of society.
Students and teachers returned to school yesterday after the mid-term break.
While people from different parts of the Kingdom came down to Jeddah to spend their vacations, thousands of the city’s residents traveled to various destinations within the Kingdom and abroad.
King Abdulaziz International Airport witnessed a huge rush of people returning from vacation in time of for the school opening.
