Saud Al-Sulimani, customer relations manager at Bab Al-Umrah, one of five Umrah service providers, said his company arranged 500 Umrah visas for Iranian pilgrims on Monday. If all goes well, the first batch of Iranians should arrive in Makkah within a week.
The news should come as a relief to companies involved in the Umrah business, especially hoteliers in Makkah and Madinah who feared losses running into millions of riyals.
Iran’s Sazman-e-Haj (Haj and Pilgrimage Organization) had surprised everyone in January when the new Umrah season was about to start by announcing that Iranian pilgrims would not be performing Umrah until further notice.
Last year, 866,147 Iranians performed Umrah. The figure was almost a quarter of the total Umrah pilgrims from all over the world.
Al-Sulimani said since the Iranian pilgrims are starting three months late, achieving last year’s figure was not possible, and that up to 350,000 Iranian pilgrims should be expected by the end of the Umrah season in early Ramadan.
Contrary to expectations, some experts say the absence of Iranian pilgrims has not affected the Umrah business. Shaji Nehal, a travel industry executive and a keen Umrah business watcher, said, “Pilgrims from Egypt and Turkey have offset the loss from Iran. In fact it was more than covered by premium spenders coming from Kuwait, Qatar, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt.”
He said the rush in Makkah and Madinah during the short vacation period in April was “unprecedented” and resembled scenes witnessed in Ramadan.
According to Nehal, during the past three months all Umrah-related businesses such as airlines, road transport and hotels have scored huge profits that have nearly wiped out last year’s losses. “A room which was being booked for SR400 per night last year was going for SR900,” he said, adding the majority of travel agents that deal with Umrah were denied bookings by major hotels forcing them to book accommodation far from the Haram.
Nehal said many of the hotels were marketing their rooms at premium prices directly to customers through websites.
Al-Sulimani of Bab Al-Umrah said Turkish pilgrims were arriving in fairly large numbers. Since the start of the Umrah season in Rabi Al-Awwal (Feb. 15), his company had arranged 153,000 visas for Turkish pilgrims, a number that surpasses his company’s previous records.
Last year 211,000 Turkish pilgrims performed Umrah. This year Al-Sulimani expects the figure to go beyond 300,000.
