Watch: SR29m deals cut at 1st Saudi provincial camel pageant

Cairo: Saudi Arabia’s first provincial camel festival in the northern city of Tabuk wrapped up with sales surpassing SR29 million.

As many as 350,000 fans from inside and outside Saudi Arabia attended events of the 11-day festival that featured cash prizes of over SR13 million in its competitions.

More than 360 camel owners took part in the pageant with nearly 3,000 animals with the event stimulating the regional economy in terms of high hotel occupancy rates and brisk business at the Tabuk restaurants, cafes and car rentals, the Saudi news agency SPA reported.

The Tabuk festival marked the first in a series planned by its organisers to promote the Arabian camel heritage in different parts of the kingdom.

The event was organised by the Saudi Camel Club that seeks to reach all regions of the kingdom, attract camel fans, enhance related industries and provide a tourist, entertainment and economic destination.

Saudi Arabia annually hosts the King Abdul Aziz Camel Festival, the world’s such biggest pageant.

Around 1.8 million fans flocked to the flagship camel event in its latest edition that ran for 45 days and concluded last January near the capital Riyadh, according to officials.

A total of 35,000 camels competed in the seventh edition of the festival against 24,000 in the sixth edition.

Camels are a popular animal closely linked to heritage in Saudi Arabia.

The animal has long been dubbed as the “ship of the desert”, being the lifeline for desert dwellers.

In recent years, the camel business has remarkably grown in the kingdom.

There are around 1.8 million camels with a market value of over SR50 billion in Saudi Arabia, according to official figures.