“The incidents in Egypt and other Arab countries will adversely affect the Umrah season, because we are talking about more than half a million pilgrims that may not be able to make the journey to the Kingdom,” Saad Jameel Al-Qurashi, chairman of the National Committee for Haj and Umrah at the Saudi Council of Chambers, told Arab News Monday. He said Egyptian pilgrims usually come for Umrah in the month Rabie Al-Awwal. According to Al-Qurashi, Saudi Umrah companies annually make profits of more than SR750 million from Egyptian pilgrims.
He said recent events in Tunisia might also deter Tunisian pilgrims from making the Umrah journey to the Kingdom.
“Though they do not go exceed 40,000 every year, their absence could still have an adverse effect on the success of the season,” he said. He estimated the annual intake of Algerian Umrah pilgrims to be around 80,000.
Al-Qurashi said preparations for handling the expected large number of Egyptian pilgrims started late last year when 700 Saudi and Egyptian Umrah companies got together for their 12th annual convention.
Representatives from Saudi hotels, Haj service providers and Egyptian Umrah companies discussed how to provide the best possible services to Egyptian pilgrims.
He hoped that the situation in Egypt would become normal soon so that pilgrims would be able to come and take advantage of the accommodation facilities and transport already prepared for them.
