The currency exchange sector in Makkah reported that businesses recorded as much as a 70 percent drop in money exchanging compared the same period last year.

Adil Maltani, chief of the exchange dealers, said that movements of currency exchange dropped this Umrah season to SR3 million, compared to SR6 million to SR15 million of currency exchanges during past seasons. The black market of currency exchange in the city, he said, has been eliminated up to 80 percent compared to the same period last year. The Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA) has imposed new laws that led to structural and regulatory corrections in the market.

Aabed Al-Abdali, a professor of Islamic economics at Umm Al-Qura University and an expert in the economics of Haj and Umrah, said that revenues of this Umrah season declined by 40 percent.

Al-Abdali said: “The lower number of Umrah pilgrims due to the expansion and development works in the Grand Mosque that may continue to the coming three years is one of the reasons.” He said that the weaker purchasing power of visitors and pilgrims is another reason for the decline in revenues.

Al-Abdali said: “Especially those pilgrims coming from regions that witness political upheavals which led to the lower exchange rates of their homeland currency.

“If we calculated the numbers of the holy ritual performers we may find they are almost the same.

“But actually we are referring to those coming from outside the country who want to stay in Makkah afterwards and spend much more money, according to studies prepared by Haj Research Center.”

Another reason for this decline, said Al-Abdali, is that Umrah seasons coincided this year with summer where Makkah in particular witnesses very high temperatures, “that may cause delaying the holy rituals performing to other cooler times.”