RIYADH — As many as 100,000 tourists and 5.6 million visitors have turned out to witness diverse events and activities of the Riyadh Season festival during the period from second week of October until last Thursday evening. This information was contained in the latest statistical report, released by the General Entertainment Authority (GEA), the Saudi Press Agency reported. Main venues of a number of events have been shut in front of more visitors after they were packed and exceeded their capacity. GEA President Turki Al-Sheikh said that the Riyadh Season has proved a powerful festival, which is being implemented by 280 Saudi companies with a manpower of 24,000 seasonal workers in addition to more than 22,000 part timers. The GEA report covered the latest statistics of the Riyadh Season, including hotel occupancy rate and reservations, the number of tourists and visitors in addition to financial operations in Riyadh city, as monitored by the Saudi Payments Network "Mada." An official report by Mada showed an increase of financial operations in Riyadh city by more than 333,000 transactions through 201,000 bank cards during the Riyadh Season in October alone with an amount exceeding SR156 million, of which five percent of the operations were carried out by visitors from outside the Kingdom.
