JEDDAH, 31 March — The Haj is over, and Jeddah’s traders are once again lamenting the regulations restricting independent movement of pilgrims which had a negative impact on their business.
In the past, Jeddah was full of pilgrims both before and after the Haj, and local retailers reaped a huge harvest.
The city’s dozens of shopping centers were guaranteed a massive upsurge in customers, season after season, and almost 70 percent of annual business was done during the Haj season.
Now those retailers are coming to terms with the fact that all of that is a thing of the past.
This season, the pilgrims were strictly monitored on their arrival and their departure.
If their tour operator and hotel were based in Jeddah, the local retailers benefited from their custom. However, if they were based in Makkah, they were no longer free to visit Jeddah without first obtaining specific permission. The majority were based in Makkah and this bureaucratic procedure put many off from coming here.
The intention was to prevent those who were thinking about staying here illegally from doing so. Thousands of pilgrims used to stay behind every year, looking for work.
The problem of overstaying remains a big headache for the authorities who want to ensure that all pilgrims leave by the end of the season. Interior Minister Prince Naif has issued a stern warning to the pilgrims against overstaying in the country.
More than two million people, including 1.4 million who came from abroad, performed Haj this year. Most of them have already left and the rest have until April 13 (Muharram 30) to leave.
"Our loss is Makkah’s gain," was the universal response of retailers big and small throughout Jeddah when approached by Arab News.
Pilgrims continue to come by sea and road, but their number is small compared to those who come by air and go directly to the holy cities, bypassing Jeddah.
Those who were based here in Jeddah did take advantage of the local markets to buy a wide range of items, and usually ended up with a great many gifts for relatives and friends back home.
It is not only a case of things being cheaper here. It is also a question of obligation.
Ahmed Idries, a Sudanese, was one of dozens of pilgrims from African and other Middle East countries we encountered yesterday at the container yard near Jeddah Islamic Port
They are still making arrangements with agents to ship the goods they have bought back to their home destinations.
"Gifts symbolize the love we hold for our relatives and friends. They tell them that they were remembered as we offered prayers in the holy places during the pilgrimage. They are all the more happy that we prayed for them on this sacred land," Idries said.
Once the Haj ritual was complete, the hunt for bargains began.
But then there was the search for the best deal with a shipping company, and the inevitable delays involved in going through all the bureaucratic procedures.
It is not unusual for a pilgrim to hire a whole container if he is a businessman. But a group of pilgrims from the same country generally hire a container together.
To ship to the subcontinent can cost as much as SR3,500. To a nearby African port, the cost is about half that amount.
What were the most popular gifts?
Abdullah Saleh, a jeweler in the Balad district, told us textiles and clothes.
"Some of them shop like crazy for gold, but the most common gifts are children’s clothes," he explained.
