Fatima Muhammad Saudi Gazette JEDDAH — The recent decision to reduce the number of Umrah visas has affected the religious tourism market badly, said agencies operating outside the Kingdom. However, industry experts still believe that targeting local pilgrims can help hotels and businesses that have been hit by the Ministry of Haj's decision. Mustafa Jamal, a partner at an Egyptian Haj and Umrah business, told Saudi Gazette that they have booked four hotels in Makkah's Al-Aziziyah District and have paid a primary deposit to these hotels ranging from SR100,000 to SR150,000 each. He said: “We normally provide our service to 5,000 to 6,000 pilgrims. “However, the sudden drop in Umrah pilgrims forced us to revise down our expected number of clients to only 1,000.” Their company canceled its bookings at three hotels, costing them SR300,000 because the deposits were non-refundable. Abdul Ghani Al-Ansari, head of the tourism committee at the Madinah Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said that there would be no losses for hotel owners if they concentrated on local pilgrims. Local demand can cover any losses resulting from the decrease of pilgrims coming from abroad, said Al-Ansari. He said: “We used to welcome only 3 million pilgrims from outside the country until two years ago, when the Ministry of Haj was more generous with the private sector by increasing the number of visas to 6 million. “The sudden decrease is what has shocked the private sector.” Al-Ansari said the committee would be having a meeting to discuss the new decision to decrease the number of visas. He said: “Our only issue with the Ministry of Haj is that they should engage with us when they are making decisions. “The expansions of the Holy Mosques were not sudden projects. “Rather, they were scheduled earlier and, therefore, in the same manner we should have been notified earlier.” Meanwhile, the national committee for Haj and Umrah estimates that investors would suffer SR5 billion worth of losses due to this decision. The Ministry of Haj also said that each pilgrim could stay in the Kingdom for only 15 days instead of 30, as was previously the case.
