RIYADH — Over 780,000 Saudis traveled abroad during the Eid Al-Adha holidays, according to a report released by the Tourism Data and Information Center, an affiliate of the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities (SCTA). The report said the tourists spent a combined SR3.2 billion with an average of SR3,990 per individual. It added that 369,300 tourists visited the Kingdom during the Eid holidays. They spent over SR1.8 billion with an average of SR4,875 per person. The report said Bahrain topped GCC countries where Saudi tourists flocked to with 276,300 visiting the island nation. The UAE ranked second with 128,700 tourists and Kuwait came third with 125,800 tourists. Bahrain ranked first among GCC states whose people visited the Kingdom during the same period. The report showed that 104,000 Bahrainis visited the Kingdom during the Eid holidays, followed by Kuwait with 102,000 visitors. Qatar came third with 65,000 visitors and the fourth was the UAE with 42,000 visitors. Muhammad Al-Ahmed, the center's director, said the rate of the Saudi tourists who traveled abroad during the holiday has risen by 44 percent compared to last year. In 2011, 588,000 tourists went abroad where they spent SR3.14 billion with an average of SR5,339 per tourist. Al-Ahmed said the official statistics, prepared by the center in conjunction with the Ministry of Interior's National Data Center, were based on the data provided by the immigration checkpoints all over the Kingdom. He said the number of the visitors who arrived in the Kingdom for purposes other than Haj registered an increase of 3.7 percent compared to those who visited the Kingdom during the mid-term holiday. — SG/SPA
