Saudis spend SAR400m in Bahrain during Eid holiday

More than 300,000 Saudis who travelled to Bahrain during the Eid al-Adha holiday spent SAR400 million, according to tourism industry sources. The sources said the amount was spent during the first three days of the feast, Al-Eqtisiadiah reports. The figure only includes spending on needs such as food, entry fees, insurance and entertainment, says Abdul-Lattif al-Afaleq of the Saudi chambers council. It doesn’t include the amounts spent on accommodation and other expenses. He adds that the daily spending of the Saudi tourist in Bahrain averages SAR400. The sources said many of those tourists spend the day in Bahrain and return to the adjacent Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia to escape the high hotel rates of during Eid. They emphasise that actual spending is much higher than SAR400m if all expenses are taken into account. Bahraini officials said tourist inflow has seen a remarkable increase during this year’s Eid and said it’s the best compared with the previous years. They noted occupancy rates at the kingdom’s four- and five-star hotels peaked during the Eid holiday. Roughly 50 per cent of those who checked in the kingdom’s hotels were nationals of member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council.