MAKKAH, 13 December — The scrapping of the travel pass, which until recently all expatriates traveling within the Kingdom were required to carry, has greatly boosted inter-city travel during Ramadan and the Eid holidays, public transport operators and expats themselves have confirmed.
Thousands of foreign laborers who missed the opportunity to travel to the two holy cities of Makkah and Madinah or to other destinations within the Kingdom during the religious holiday season are now able to make the journey.
“There has been a considerable increase in the volume of traffic coming to Makkah this Ramadan. Definitely, the decision to cancel the pass as a requirement for foreigners to move from one place to another has greatly enabled many to move freely,” said a Saudi taxi driver who ferries pilgrims from public parking areas to the Grand Mosque.
Fleets of buses, taxis and private cars continue to pour into Makkah from all directions carrying pilgrims, many with their families.
The two main parking places for traffic entering Makkah — the Rusaifa parking for those coming from Jeddah and Kudai for motorists coming from the central and southern areas — have been swarmed with vehicles since the first week of the fasting month.
While some operators said the move boosted traffic by 70 percent, others said the impact is so great as to almost double previous traffic volumes. While an increasing number of expatriates were using their cars to travel to Makkah and Madinah from places as far as Riyadh and Dammam, others traveling on short-notice caught the nearest available means of public transport.
“I decided to come with my family on the weekend. We arrived last night, concluded the religious rites and are now preparing to return to Riyadh,” said a Sudanese worker while preparing to board a Saudi Public Transport Co. bus at the SAPTCO terminal near the Grand Mosque.
The decision which came into effect a few months ago was then widely welcomed by businessmen, who for years have been calling for an easing of travel restrictions for the estimated six million expatriate workers, saying this would greatly boost domestic tourism.
At a recent conference on tourism held in Jeddah, Abdul Rahman Faqeeh, chairman of Faqeeh Group, said the city could accommodate up to 10 million Umrah visitors each year from inside the country and abroad. He estimated the revenue generated from such traffic at SR40 billion but called for better accommodation and transport facilities.
“This is my first visit to Makkah in three years. Each time I planned to come here during Ramadan I missed the opportunity because I wasn’t able to secure the travel document. I came from Jizan and from here I am traveling to Riyadh to visit relatives and friends,” said Barki Noman, a teacher.
The move also eased the burden on the Passports Department which was to endorse hundreds of thousands of travel passes issued by sponsors each year. Officials at the department’s office in Jeddah said they used to stamp more than 1,000 papers daily. It has also saved money for expatriates, as some service agents charged SR50 to SR100 to get the travel papers ready.
The decision, however, denied local chambers millions of riyals in revenue since they charged SR20 for the attestation of each paper.
