YANBU: Owners of hotels and furnished apartments in Yanbu have expressed concerns that the continued stay of people evacuated from earthquake-prone Al-Ais will negatively affect their business and incur them huge losses.
As many as 691 families from Al-Ais have been accommodated in hotels and furnished apartments in Yanbu Al-Bahr at government expense.
The apartments are provided at a discounted rate of between SR100 and SR350 depending on the number of rooms.
In summer, when a large number of Saudi families visit Yanbu to spend their vacation, rent prices go up as high as SR1,000.
Property owners in Yanbu make huge profits in summer when hotels and furnished apartments enjoy almost 100 percent occupancy. "But the continued stay of evacuees in our apartments at prices agreed upon with the Finance Ministry will make us suffer heavy losses," a hotelier said.
The summer season begins at the end of June when school vacations start. A large number of people will come to Yanbu to reserve suitable accommodation for their families during the summer vacation. "Some people book apartments as early as a month before their actual arrivals. We have so many regular customers, but this year we won't have any apartments to rent out to them," said another property owner.
One businessman, who owns hotels and furnished apartments in Yanbu, said he was ready to forego bills for accommodating the evacuees for the past few weeks if they left now. He wants to redecorate his apartments in order to attract holidaymakers who come to the city during the summer.
Because earthquakes are rare in the Kingdom, analysts expect many vacationers who come to Yanbu will also visit Al-Ais to see the damage caused by the tremors.
Meanwhile, Col. Zuhair Sabeeh, director of the Civil Defense in Yanbu, denied possible return of Al-Ais residents to their homes any time soon. He said the decision was made on the basis of a report issued by the Saudi Geological Survey and the opinions of experts monitoring volcanic activity at Harrah Al-Shaqah.
He dismissed rumors that an official decision was already made to allow residents of Al-Ais to return to their homes after inspections were carried on buildings and structures in the town.
Sabeeh said officials made the safety of Al-Ais residents a top priority and would not allow them to return home until experts ensure that the earthquake threat was over.
By Muhammad Al-Asheikh
© Arab News 2009
