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Religious tourism: a white bullion of Saudi Arabia
- Updated: September 3, 2017
In Sep 2015, a construction derrick crashed over pilgrims congregating during a Grand Mosque in Mecca, withdrawal some-more than 100 people dead. PHOTO: AFP
MINA: With tellurian oil prices flailing, Saudi Arabia is branch to another healthy resource: billions of dollars gained from eremite tourism as a dominion hosts a annual hajj pilgrimage.
Shops line a packaged green of a Great Mosque of Mecca, one of a holiest sites in Islam, obscure their awnings usually during request time and re-opening their doors mins after a mosque empties.
Saudi authorities have reported 2.35 million Muslims are participating in this year’s hajj, a event to a western Saudi Arabian city of Mecca that forms one of a 5 pillars of Islam.
Of those, around 1.75 million pilgrims from 168 countries arrived from abroad, according to a state-run SPA news agency.
Even during a foothills of Mount Arafat, where Muslims trust a Prophet Mohammed delivered his final sermon, runner merchants were scouting for business among a faithful.
“The income spent by pilgrims this year could be from 20 to 25 billion riyals [5.3 to 6.7 billion dollars],” pronounced Maher Jamal, conduct of Mecca’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry — an estimated 70 per cent boost from a prior year.
Iran pilgrims make lapse to hajj with sour memories
Jamal told AFP a burst in income stemmed from a 20 per cent boost in a series of pilgrims compared with final year. Each of them contributes on normal thousands of dollars to a kingdom’s domestic economy, spending income on food, lodging, souvenirs and gifts.
The boost in numbers is no collision though rather partial of a desirous Vision 2030 devise directed during diversifying a Saudi economy, that was dealt a critical blow after oil prices plummeted in 2014.
According to historian Luc Chantre, whose investigate focuses on hajj during colonial times, “even before a appearance of Islam, Mecca was a place for merchants”.
“It was an area of general exchange, where sacrament and commerce were always linked,” Chantre told AFP. “Until a find of oil, a hajj was Saudi Arabia’s primary source of revenue.”
Saudi Arabia — a world’s tip wanton oil exporter — has announced a devise to change a kingdom’s economy divided from oil dependency toward other sources of revenue, including eremite tourism.
The Vision 2030 devise aims to pull 6 million pilgrims to hajj annually. In addition, a dominion hopes to attract 30 million pilgrims to umrah, a obtuse event that can be finished during a rest of a year.
Years before a 2030 targets were unveiled, work was already underneath approach to enhance a ability to accommodate as many pilgrims as probable during a five-day hajj.
The past decade has seen cranes arise above a Great Mosque for projects including a enlargement of a holy mosques of Mecca and Medina, an subterraneous metro line and new flooring built around a Kaaba — a black masonry brick that pilgrims circumambulate by now-air conditioned or ventilated corridors.
The enlargement projects have been met with some critique for distorting a ancient sites, sparking vital reserve concerns along a way.
In Sep 2015, a construction derrick crashed over pilgrims congregating during a Grand Mosque in Mecca, withdrawal some-more than 100 people dead.
Later that month, a hajj saw a misfortune ever disaster when a lethal bolt along a track killed around 2,300 people.
The bolt drew extreme criticism, in sold from opposition Iran that reported 464 of a adults killed.
After refusing to send pilgrims in 2016, Iranian authorities contend some-more than 86,000 of their nationals are holding partial this year.
104-year-old lady anxious to be behaving Hajj
On Friday, as pilgrims carried out a final vital protocol of a pilgrimage, Saudi authorities hold a televised press discussion to news that a 2017 hajj had upheld but vital health or reserve upsets.