MINA, 9 January 2006 — From the inside, it looks like a modern, luxury apartment in Manhattan, complete with Swedish furniture and indoor plumbing. From the outside, it is just another tent in a Haj camp in the middle of the holy site of Mina, Saudi Arabia.
Five-star service is what the pilgrim who has rented this ornamental tent is going to receive when he and his entourage arrive at the Adwaia Al-Iman pilgrims’ camp.
It is not common to see such a tent next to those of the commoners in Mina or in any other holy site during the Haj season. But, nowadays, some companies are betting there are wealthy pilgrims eager to shell out prices far greater than those of any luxury executive suite on Park Avenue.
Tariq Saeed Hussein, the owner of the company that operates the service, told Arab News that this luxurious tent was constructed for a VIP pilgrim who wanted a special and comfortable place during his Haj journey.
The interior designing, partitioning and construction of the company’s showcase tent took three days. The process included building an internal restroom and setting high ceilings.
“It is more like building a small room than setting a tent, since providing the internal bathrooms requires heavy plumbing jobs,” said Khalifa Kamil, the senior coordinator at the luxury camp near Mina’s Al-Jisr Hospital.
The tent is divided into two main sections. The first section has three lavish bedrooms, a large living room and two bathrooms (one is in the master bedroom). The other section is smaller and it has one bedroom, one bathroom and a medium living room.
Even by the standards of the rich pilgrims that seek out Hussein’s services, this tent is an extreme example.
“The charge for providing this tent is SR800,000 ($213,000) for five days only,” said Hussein. “But this charge also includes five-star transportation and meals.”
That amounts to SR160,000 ($42,000) per day, compared to the highest price for a plebeian’s tent of SR3,000 ($800), which also includes meals and transportation.
Hussein says that the cost reflects the difficulties of establishing an urban haven in the middle of the harsh desert environment around Mina.
His company offers other, more affordable plans, including the reservation of an entire tent for one pilgrim. The cost of reserving an entire 16-square-meter tent at this camp is between SR15,000 and SR20,000 (between $4,000 and $5,300).
“The government charges us by the square meter of leased land in Mina, and we have to utilize every meter within our authorized territory,” he said. “The guest must bear the cost of phasing out other people from the tent.”
“This will give the guests a feeling that they are staying in an urban area,” said Kamil. “Many companies are now specializing in five-star services for upper class and VIP pilgrims, and many others are heading in this direction.”
Based on his experience in managing Haj tours, Kamil said that combining regular and extravagant services will become the next trend in the industry, and it is in the benefit of most regular camps to offer it in an attempt to upgrade their service and diversify their client base.
