JIZAN: The number of visitors to the Jizan Winter Festival, which has become to be known as the mini-Janadriya, exceeded 160,000 by Friday night, at the rate of 16,000 daily visitors from all across the Kingdom, officials said. Visitors thronged the pavilions for traditional foods, handicrafts, products made by families and goods in the market. The quality of the offerings led to purchases at a brisk rate, said a source, who expects financial returns for the past 10 days to exceed SR2 million and believes they could double in the coming days. Visitors coming from Abha, Riyadh, the Eastern Province and other regions were eager to purchase traditional items and give them to their friends. Muhammad Al-Asmari and Ali Al-Shihri, who came from the Al-Namass Region, said they did not expect that the event would be so impressive until they saw it with their own eyes. They said the Jizan Winter Festival has revealed many environments and aspects of the country's heritage that they had not seen before.
