Workers at tourism & travel agencies in Riyadh assured that hundreds of Saudi travelers changed their destinations intended to Cairo and Beirut to Dubai, Manama, Kuwait, and Doha, and even to Turkey and Morocco while some others have postponed their vocations to the next spring holiday which will start after about 10 weeks. A few have canceled the idea of their travel until the vision is clear about what is going in Beirut and Egypt. Locally, Jeddah second crisis caused the cancelation of the idea of visiting Jeddah who usually hosts a portion of Riyadh visitors and some other areas during both the mid-year and the spring holiday where the weather of the Western Region are fair in this time of the year. However, turnout was more in the eastern regions. Gulf cities benefited from the Saudis visits during the short mid-year holiday which is one week started officially last Wednesday. The tendency of the Saudi families and the young men, teachers and students in particular, to head to Gulf cities is due to the recent crisis both is Egypt and Lebanon because of the political instability. An official in the Tourism Commission of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry – Riyadh estimated that the percentage of trips to Egypt and Lebanon canceled is about 20%. Meanwhile, a lot of Saudi travelers changed their destinations to Gulf countries because of their near distance. He also said that the only the Saudi Airlines have increased their flights by the end of this week and the next week to become 6 flights daily, and the type of the aircrafts are those with the biggest number of seats.
