"It is nice to spend your vacation at a place where you can enjoy your time and forget about your job and its boring atmosphere. I used to spend my Eid vacation in Aden; however, you can not enjoy the place any more because it is overcrowded and everything is too expensive," says Ali Mohammed Saleh.

Coastal places like Aden, Al-Hodeidah, Al-Khukhah, Mukalla, are of attraction to most people in Yemen, especially when Eid vacations coincide with winter season when the weather is moderate and sea is calm.

Official statistics indicate that the above cities come in first places as to the numbers of domestic tourism, even before historic and archeological attractions. Most people go these cities during summer holiday, Eid vacations and other happy occasions.

Media sources reported that about one million people flocked to Aden, Hodeidah and Al-Mukalla, mostly from Northern provinces and some countries as these provinces enjoy excellent weather these days.

"It is hard to find suitable hotels and the prices are too expensive. Further, it is harder to find restaurants at quite competitive prices. Everything is doubled during this season," adds Saleh.

Like Saleh, many people complain that there are few hotels, resorts and parks, and are unable to hold to the increasing number of visitors during the Eid seasons and summer holidays. They further stress that starred hotels are reserved by rich people and their children.

"What annoys you most is that you can not find clean hotels during the season and prices are still doubled. The same applies to restaurants and other services like transport means," notes Abdullah Al-Omari, a teacher by occupation.

He points out that crowdedness and price hikes have caused joy and happiness to disappear.

"Amid the huge number of visitors, you get annoyed particularly when you have your family with you. Everything is too expensive and for us, it is hard to find good services when you have just a limited budget," maintains Al-Omari.

Better infrastructure needed

Several experts believe that infrastructure in these cities should be reinforced and more hotels with different stars should be built. In this regard, Tourism Ministry should provide feasibility studies for building hotels and resorts to contain the rising numbers of visitors and tourists.

Further, roads web needs expansion and more parks are to be constructed to provide fun for visitors' children.

Engineer Khalid Al-Hajj stresses that concerned authorities like Ministry of Public Works and Ministry of Tourism should work together for setting plans to make expansion and improvement to roads and other basic services.

"There should be more hotels, resorts and parks of different classes to contain the increasing number of visitors over the different occasions. Moreover, road web linking Aden, Al-Mukalla and Al-Hodeidah to other governorates and Gulf States should be expanded and improved," declares Al-Hajj.

He goes on to say that the existence of more facilities will enable visitors and tourists to choose and create a state of competitiveness among the providers of these services. Thus, a visitor can get both good services and competitive prices.

Crowdedness: another problem

People complain of overcrowdings because a limited number of parks, hotels and restaurants exist in destination places and this crowdedness makes them feel uncomfortable.

Saleh indicates that he spent so much time in the park while waiting for his children's role to play, hinting he was not admitted to another park because it was already reserved by some high class children.