Saudi Gazette JEDDAH — Special airlines packages for families, and online Visa process for expats living in the Kingdom, are some of the offers being made to entice people to visit the second edition of Bahrain Shopping Festival, ‘Shop Bahrain'. This measures were announced at the press conference held at Hilton Jeddah on Monday to kick off the second edition of the popular festival ‘Shop Bahrain'. The shopping festival will start on Dec. 24 and will end on Jan. 23. During the conference, Shop Bahrain Director Nawaf AlKoheji explained that this festival is aiming to attract more Gulf tourists than the previous one with special packages and offers. In 2014, the shopping festival rakes in about BD18 million in six weeks and most of the visitors were from across the Gulf region. ‘VIVA Shop & Skate', which is the largest outdoor ice-skating rink in the region, Al Riwaq's ‘The Nest', ‘Family Fair', and the local bazaar are some of the festival's events that will prove to be a big draw. Residents living in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries, can apply for the visa online rather than going to the embassy. This was on of the special offers revealed at the conference. According to AlKoheji, people attending the festival and buying stuff from certain retail shops can collect points for special deals. For instance, there are shops categorized under the ‘Bronze' area, and any purchase from these shops will earn the buyer a point, while buying from shops consider in the' Silver' Category will earn the buyer two points. Buying from the shops under the ‘ Gold' category will let them earn 3 points. If they collect 500 and more points than they have a chance to win several prizes. Since Gulf Air is one of the strategic partners of the festival organizer ‘Tamkeen', the airline is offering families special tickets packages, as well as, packages that includes airline tickets and hotel residency during the festival period.
