GEA Issues Over 1,673 Licenses for Entertainment Activities during Q1 of 2024

GEA Issues Over 1,673 Licenses for Entertainment Activities during Q1 of 2024
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GEA Issues Over 1,673 Licenses for Entertainment Activities during Q1 of 2024

GEA Issues Over 1,673 Licenses for Entertainment Activities during Q1 of 2024

The General Entertainment Authority (GEA) issued more than 1,673 licenses for various entertainment activities during the first quarter of 2024, signaling an increase of 28% from the same period last year.
The licenses the GEA issued included all entertainment and supporting activities, particularly entertainment events and shows, and live shows in restaurants, cafes, amusement parks, and entertainment centers, operating entertainment facilities, managing the work of artistic and entertainment talents, organizing and managing crowds, and selling tickets for entertainment activities. It also issued 97 licenses for new entertainment destinations.

The entertainment events the authority licensed during the first quarter of this year covered various regions in the Kingdom, SPA reported.

The city of Riyadh witnessed 216 entertainment events, Makkah 101 events, the Eastern Province 76 events, the Qassim region 37 events, followed by Asir and Jazan which hosted region 23 and 16 events, respectively.

The total number of visitors to the events in all regions of the Kingdom reached more than 11 million.



Taipei Zoo's Veteran Giant Panda Celebrates 20th Birthday

Panda Yuanyuan enjoys her birthday cake for her 20th birthday at the Taipei Zoo in Taipei, Taiwan, Friday, Aug. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)
Panda Yuanyuan enjoys her birthday cake for her 20th birthday at the Taipei Zoo in Taipei, Taiwan, Friday, Aug. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)
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Taipei Zoo's Veteran Giant Panda Celebrates 20th Birthday

Panda Yuanyuan enjoys her birthday cake for her 20th birthday at the Taipei Zoo in Taipei, Taiwan, Friday, Aug. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)
Panda Yuanyuan enjoys her birthday cake for her 20th birthday at the Taipei Zoo in Taipei, Taiwan, Friday, Aug. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)

With politics set aside, well-wishers gathered to wish the Taipei zoo’s senior panda a happy 20th birthday.
Visitors crowded around Yuanyuan's enclosure to take photos of her with a birthday cake in the shape of the number 20.
Yuanyuan was born in China and arrived in 2008 with her partner Tuantuan. He died in 2022 at age 18 but not before fathering two female cubs, Yuanzai and Yuanbao, now 11 and 4 respectively and still living at the zoo.
Danielle Shu, a 20-year-old Brazilian student in Taiwan, said she found online clips of the pandas an enjoyable distraction. “And I just find it really funny and cute,” The Associated Press quoted Shu as saying.
Giant pandas are native only to China, and Beijing bestows them as a sign of political amity. Yuanyuan and Tuantuan arrived in Taiwan during a period of relative calm between the sides, which split amid civil war in 1949. China claims the island its own territory, to be annexed by military force if necessary.
Faced with declining habitat and a notoriously low birthrate, giant panda populations have declined to around 1,900 in the mountains of western China, while 600 pandas live in zoos and breeding centers in China and around the world.