Mr. Walid Abu Saba, head of the Tourism and Hotel Committee at the Mecca Chamber of Commerce and Industry, declared that the Saudi Ministry of Hajj has augmented the number of Ramadan visas for pilgrims by 16 percent. The announcement has been highly welcomed by Umrah service providers and hotel owners.

The ministry’s plan was to issue 792,000 Umrah visas during Ramadan. However, when it confronted the increased demand from external agents and following the complaints of the hotel owners in Mecca as well as Medina, it has decided to issue 911,000 more visas.

Abu Saba expressed his thankfulness and gratitude to the government and added to say  that this augmentation will have a direct important impact on hotel occupancies in Mecca and Medina. He added that statics of pilgrims for this year might go beyond four millions.

During the last few days the hotel owners are reporting elevated occupancy. Amongst the remarkable Umrah and Hajj performers are those coming from Gulf Cooperation Countries (GCC) for they do not need visas to enter Saudi Arabia territories and thus, their travel plans are very fluid. The easiness they enjoy could even let a considerable number of them to take decisions to perform Umrah on the first day of Ramadan after breaking their fast.

In the meantime, the costs of the hotel rooms in Mecca and Medina have increased considerably and prices have augmented 5 times compared to its casual percentage.