Tourism & Hospitality | Sunday 16 August, 2015 6:20 am |

Summer festivals, which fall under the efforts of development of tourism festivals carried out by the Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage (SCTNH) in collaboration with Tourism Development Councils, is witnessing new changes with new events that drew a huge rush of visitors this year across the Kingdom.

“Tourism festivals this summer have witnessed new and distinguished events seeing heavy turnout and remarkable interaction by the visitors,” a SCTNH spokesman said on Saturday.
Notably, this year summer festivals were distinguished by their diversity, aside from the heritage, cultural, entertainment and sport events, new elements were added that include organization of food products such as Grub Festival in Bel Gurn municipality in which about 11 tons of internationally famous types of grubs were displayed.

Other distinguished festivals that drew heavy rush included Honey and Flowers Festival in Al-Shafa district in Taif, Bar Festival in Bel Sammar, Honey International Festival in Ragdan park and forest in Al-Baha and Dates Festival in Al-Qassim are a huge draw.
Moreover, fine artists in Al-Dar Darak Festival in Dheba initiated the largest painting festival illustrating the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman’s portrait with quote, “Long live Salman,” expressing their loyalty to the wise leadership of the Kingdom.
Furthermore, “Jeddah Ghair” festival witnessed fascinating light and sound shows including laser shows with distinct forms, besides plays and circuses.
Another important feature of tourist attraction this year was the “tourist bus” experience in Asir province, where a large number of visitors and residents of Asir province interacted with each other on the trip.

According to SCTNH, the tourist bus conveyed daily about 500 travelers in 10 daily trips since the start of summer season to Asir’s different landmarks and tourism locations.