JEDDAH – The entertainment festival "Jeddah Season", which kicked off in this coastal city early this month, has generated a big number of job opportunities for young Saudi men and women. More than 5,000 secondary school and university students took the opportunity to work in many seasonal jobs came up during the festival, the Saudi Press Agency reported quoting informed sources. This was apart from many fulltime and part-time employees who were active in organizing about 150 events catering to all segments of society at several venues across the city. The jobs provided the young students with a source of income, an opportunity to develop their skills and make the best use of their leisure time during the summer school break. The 40-day-long summer festival is deemed to be an opportunity for the residents of Jeddah to earn a lawful income and at the same time contribute to creating a festive atmosphere for visitors to the city. Jeddah receives thousands of tourists from within the Kingdom and abroad during summer every year. This year "Jeddah Season" is being organized in a more comprehensive and sophisticated manner in line with the ambitious objectives of the Kingdom's Vision 2030, which aims to achieve further prosperity and advancement for Saudi society as well as to develop and diversify employment opportunities Saudi men and women. The activities of the festival also enhanced the Kingdom's contributions in the field of art and culture and gave an impetus to the sports and entertainment sectors, aside from contributing effectively to transforming the Saudi lifestyle in line with the goals of the life quality program, a main focus of Vision 2030. The festival also aims to generate job opportunities for young Saudis, diversify economic activities and raise Saudi cities to the ranks of the best cities in the world to live in. Those in charge of the season's events have specified a package of objectives in holding the festival. Most important among these is to highlight the investment opportunities available in the Kingdom, to project Saudi Arabia as one of the popular tourist destinations in the world, and to include Jeddah in the list of major world cities and make it the tourism capital of the Kingdom by restructuring the activities and events sector. Operating and maintaining tourism and entertainment facilities is a vital industry that will enrich the national economy, enhance the state's efforts in youth empowerment, bolster small and medium enterprises (SMEs), which in turn will create jobs, and develop the tourism infrastructure in the city through sustainable development as wells projects designed to serve the residents of Jeddah in long-term. These represent 25 percent of Jeddah Season projects. The new facilities that have been constructed will continue to serve as an important tributary for tourism inflow in the long run. In addition to the above objectives, the Season will strive to achieve other goals relating to the youth. They include encouraging entrepreneurship by supporting Saudi SME owners, supporting entrepreneurs wishing to invest in partnership opportunities available in retail sector and in restaurants industry, simplifying procedures to open commercial registers, opening avenues volunteer service by young Saudi men and women that grant them experience and qualify them to enter the labor market and develop diverse services in the hospitality and transport sectors. In short, Jeddah Season strives to provide a wide sector of seasonal jobs to young men and women. This will grant them experience and qualify them to enter the Saudi labor market. The Season will focus on the development opportunities and shed light on the Kingdom as one of the popular tourist destinations in the world. The festival this year introduced several new services to the visitors and created many opportunities for Saudi young men and women. The organizing committee said the management and executive team of the Jeddah Season was composed of Saudis alone. This meant the officials' confidence in the high capabilities of the national cadre in organizing tourism and entertainment events.
