The annual “Jeddah Ghair,” or Jeddah Summer Festival, will be launched on June 5 under the slogan “This is the time.” The festival is being organized under the aegis of Makkah Gov. Prince Mishaal bin Abdullah and Jeddah Gov. Prince Mishaal bin Majed to promote domestic tourism.

Mazen Batterjee, vice president of Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry( JCCI), announced the schedule of the 24-day festival at a press conference recently in the presence of Secretary-General Adnan bin Hussein Mandoura, Chairman of the Executive Committee of the festival Hassan bin Ibrahim Dahlan and the executive director of the Jeddah Marketing Center.

Some 100 activities will be staged in different parts of the city including the Corniche and city outskirts for families, youth and children.

Batterjee said that JCCI and the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities (SCTA) are working hard to promote domestic tourism and attract a large number of visitors to Jeddah. This year, JCCI plans to make the Jeddah summer festival the biggest tourism festival in the Kingdom, aiming to attract over 3 million visitors.

Jeddah Ghair has been organized every year since 1998 by the JCCI and SCTA.

“We are keen to promote domestic tourism in Jeddah but we want to extend the experience to other Gulf countries keeping in mind the different cultures,” Batterjee said, adding that the aim was to attract more than 3 million tourists to the region with an expected revenue of over SR3 billion in the form of tourist spending.

Mandoura said that this year’s festival will focus on excellence after winning the tourism excellence award in 2013 making this the best tourism festival of the region.

He said the organizers are planning to showcase tourist products that will contribute to reinforce Jeddah’s status in the local and regional tourism markets. He hoped the public would enjoy a new version of the festival which is focused on Jeddah’s unique identity and long history as the Bride of the Red Sea, a history which goes back hundreds of years.

Another official said there will be 15 car prizes and cash prizes for visitors. The prize money will exceed SR3 million. The Jeddah Corniche, leading commercial centers, malls, parks, public squares, and tourist sites will be the main venues of entertainment.

A number of publicity campaigns are being advertised on social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, and at public places like Jeddah’s King Abdulaziz Airport and King Khaled Airport in Riyadh to promote the festival and its activities.

He said that aside from Jeddah Ghair, a number of festivals will be launched all across the Kingdom for people to enjoy the summer break fitting their budget.

Elaborating on the events in the summer festival, Mandoura said that there will be 35 water activities including water polo, beach soccer, and others such as roller skating, rowing, iron man contest, football, entertainment village for children, creative art and drama, Treasure Island, Sesame Street, stand-up comedy and a model car racing contest. Besides, there would be a number of fun and entertainment activities and cultural events including skills to manage stage fright, awareness programs on anti-drug, anti-asthma, blood donation, women’s health and anti-smoking and educational lectures delivered by experts in the field.

A team of Saudi cooks will make the largest kabsa (dish of rice and lamb or chicken) and try to enter the Guinness book of world records.