Al-Qibla Travels

13/08/2021

17/03/2021

Saudi Arabia is trying to set up its tourist industry for success ahead of this year’s hajj pilgrimage, but hitting pre-pandemic numbers isn’t likely until vaccine distribution increases in the Muslim world, slowing the kingdom’s economic recovery while stalling its Vision 2030 development trajectory. On March 9, Saudi King Salman approved a series of measures designed to help restart the kingdom’s dormant hajj economy ahead of the annual pilgrimage, which this year will take place in July. The measures include easing fees for companies, residents and transport that rely on the annual hajj pilgrimage for income. This indicates that Saudi Arabia is preparing to restart its religious tourism industry after a quiet 2020, in which annual numbers of hajj pilgrims tumbled from 2.5 million in 2019 to only a few thousand. ...

07/12/2020

Saudi Arabia allows foreign pilgrims to enter for Umrah......Some 10,000 foreign pilgrims are arriving in Saudi Arabia to perform Umrah after a seven-month pause because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The pilgrims must isolate for three days after arrival before being transported to religious sites, according to Amr Al-Maddah, deputy minister of Hajj and Umrah. They will be allowed a 10-day stay in the kingdom.

Al-Maddah said the testing of pilgrims – who are all 50 years old or younger – for COVID-19 will be continuous and any cases detected will be closely monitored.

Saudi Arabia, which held a largely symbolic Hajj earlier this year limited to domestic worshippers, began allowing citizens and residents to perform the Umrah last month at 30-percent capacity, or 6,000 pilgrims a day.

Worshippers are no longer allowed to touch the Kaaba – a stone structure draped in black cloth embroidered in gold with verses from the Quran. The Kaaba is the most sacred structure in Islam and the direction that Muslims face to pray; touching it is considered a great honour that pilgrims treasured in the past.

22/09/2020

22/09/2020

22/09/2020

22/09/2020