Saudi Gazette report

RIYADH — Turki Al-Sheikh, chairman of the Board of the General Entertainment Authority (GEA), said that the Riyadh Season witnessed more than 250,000 visitors in just three days, and that is even before the official launching of the festival.

“About 80 percent of the visitors were Saudis while 10 percent from the Gulf, including 11 Qataris, and the rest from other countries of the world,” he said.

According to Al-Sheikh, the Riyadh Season achieved the largest return in sponsorship as well as from joint stock companies in the Kingdom’s history by more than SR400 million.

“The season generated 24,000 seasonal jobs and more than 22,000 volunteers who work for some amount of money. The season has achieved more than SR235 million in sales in just three days, of which seven percent was from Kuwait,” he said.

Despite the official launch of the season on Thursday evening, the festival began in the past three days in the two out of 12 regions, he said. “The occupancy rate of hotels reached 98 percent and sales of train booking in the Riyadh — Dammam sector 40 percent,” he said.

Al-Sheikh said that no leniency would be shown to those who sell tickets in black market. “There will be monitoring of anyone found reselling tickets in black market and they will be held legally accountable for this,” he said.