Saudi seeks tourism boost in test for heritage and tradition
makkah — A few steps away from Makkah’s Grand Mosque, a dozen empty towers rise into the sky above the holy city visited by millions of Muslim pilgrims every year.
Hilton and Marriott logos adorn the site, heralding the $3.2 billion Jabal Omar complex that is being built to bring hotels, restaurants and luxury malls to the pilgrimage experience.
“All these hotels and buildings around the mosque will bring more business, God willing,” said Awad Al Arshani, beckoning customers into his Dates of the Two Holy Mosques shop.
Pilgrimage is the backbone of a plan to expand tourism under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s economic reform programme, announced a year ago to diversify the economy away from oil.
The Haj, a journey every ablebodied Muslim who can afford it must perform once in a lifetime, is a profound experience for those who undertake it.
It is also big business for Saudi Arabia. The Haj and the year-round lesser pilgrimage, umrah, generate $12 billion in revenues from worshippers’ lodging, transport, gifts, food and fees, according to BMI Research. But there are still big questions about how Saudi Arabia will cater to its most active tourism market, especially as the kingdom eschews tourist visas.
Pilgrimage visas currently bar travel outside the holy cities of Makkah and Madina.
Authorities plan to relax the restrictions, but have not specified to what extent and have raised the visa cost for return pilgrims to more than $500.
Most of the kingdom’s tourism development so far targets the affluent end of the market, while the biggest and fastest-growing pilgrim populations come from modest means.
The Saudi tourism commission has pledged to rehabilitate four sites in Makkah: Jabal Al Nour, Jabal Thawr, Hudaybiyyah and Prophet Muhammad’s ( peace be upon him) migration path from Makkah to Medina. But there is scant sign of any restoration in Makkah so far, said Irfan Alawi, founder of the Islamic Heritage Research Foundation.
Religious police still sit outside some of the sites, shooing away pilgrims with warnings about idolatry, he said. Dozens of other sites were demolished to make way for the redevelopment.
Pilgrims comprise the bulk of Saudi Arabia’s 20 million annual foreign visitors, apart from workers and business travellers.
Nearly 2.4 million came for this year’s Haj, up from 1.9 million last year, and 7.5 million performed umrah in 2016. Officials aim to increase the number of umrah and Haj pilgrims to 15 million and 5 million respectively by 2020, and hope to double the umrah number again to 30 million by 2030.
In addition, they hope pilgrims will be attracted to spend money at museums, luxury resorts and historical sites.
Some pilgrims are encouraged by the moves.
“We love this country because it’s the cradle of Islam, the land of the revelation and the Prophe,” Nasser Al Zein, a Turkish-German car dealer from Frankfurt, said as he performed Haj.
“We’d love to spend our money here, more than in the West. Here, it’s an Islamic country.” Others find the costs prohibitive.
“The problem is the visa. If they were to extend it perhaps we could stay and visit places other than Makkah and Madina,” said Zawaoui Daraji, 50, a trader from Algeria.
“The hotels charge you 25,000 riyals ($6,666.31) for your stay. It’s too much for us,” he said.
Such concerns have not deterred Saudi officials. Long before last year’s reform announcement, they began investing tens of billions of dollars in mega-hotels, public transit and a Grand Mosque expansion in Makkah. —