Staying at the Shubra Palace, and then later on preferring to reside in an elaborate tent city lower down the mountain, King Abdul Aziz and his family enjoyed the refreshing mountain environment. One of the King's favorite pastimes was to visit nearby valleys and plains, where gazelles and other wildlife were in abundance. Beginning in the 1950s, Taif began to grow both in physical size and population. The city's limits spread to encompass several smaller hamlets. Today more than 330,000 people make Taif their permanent home and thousands more visit over the summer months.
Agriculture continues to be a major component of the local economy.
The tourism industry also provides thousands of jobs to local residents. They work to maintain the city's more than 400 public gardens and parks, as well as in hotels and other facilities that cater to visitors. Taif's largest and most famous public garden is the King Fahd Park. Among its amenities are a lake, playgrounds, gazebos, walking paths and a mosque. In a suburb of Taif called Al-Radf, there is a zoo with a large variety of animals from around the world, in j6 addition to exotic local varieties.