Mecca slowly walked away from a seven-month hibernation when pilgrims flocked after the Saudi government partially lifted the coronavirus’s ban on practicing Omra, a pilgrimage to Islam’s two holiest sites at any time of the year.
Millions of Muslims around the world descend to Saudi Arabia for the Islamic pilgrimages of Umrah and Haj. Two percent are not unusual rites, however, haj, which is performed once a year, is the longest main ritual that is an exclusive duty of Muslims.
Saudi Arabia, which organized a largely symbolic haj this year, limited to domestic worshippers, allowed citizens to start practicing Umrah from Sunday at 30% of its capacity, or 6,000 pilgrims a day. November 1.
Last year, the Gulf State attracted 19 million to Umrah.
“The total of Mecca is satisfied today, it is like the end of a criminal sentence. We miss the non-secular sentiment of pilgrims roaming the city,” said Yasser al-Zahrani, who has become a full-time driving force for Uber after wasting his structure task on a three-month national closure imposed in March.
“It’s a nightmare arrangement . . . there are virtually no pictures to pay my bills,” he told Reuters.
Before the pandemic, more than 1,300 hotels and plenty of bustle 24 hours a day to welcome pilgrims visiting the holy cities of Mecca and Medina.
Now many are closed, some dust.
In short, dozens of registered pilgrims dressed in masks were to enter the Grand Mosque in small groups.
“This year has been a year full of tragedies. I pray for God’s forgiveness for all mankind,” said Eman, a Pakistani citizen living in Saudi Arabia, accompanied by her daughter.
As pilgrims circled the Kaaba, a stone design that is the highest sacred in Islam and the direction Muslims face when praying, officials made sure to keep their distance.
They are no longer allowed to touch the Kaaba, wrapped in a black cloth adorned with gold Arabic calligraphy.
Some have enjoyed a respite from the same overcrowding as ever. “It’s the umrah I’ve done, ” said a Saudi who knew himself as Abu Fahad.
The pilgrimage is the backbone of a tourism expansion plan as a component of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s preference to diversify the economy of the world’s largest oil exporter and aimed to increase omra visitors to 15 million until 2020, a plan interrupted by coronavirus, and to 30 million by 2030.
The devoted pilgrimage generates $12 billion in a source of income for housing, transportation, gifts, food and expenses for the faithful, according to official data.
Saudi Arabia hosted a dramatically reduced haj at the end of July for the first time in fashion history, with a few thousand domestic pilgrims from the same old sea dressed in white from some 3 million Muslims.
Near the Grand Mosque, hotels in high-rise towers used to be empty and grocery shopping malls closed hours before the Umra resumed. Dozens of department stores and restaurants were closed.
Economists estimate that Mecca’s hotel sector could lose at least 40% of the profits generated through pilgrimages this year.
Five hotel employees, who refused to be identified, said they had been placed on leave without pay during lockdown and that many more had been fired in the hotel industry.
“We forget what it is like to interact with people, everything has been online in recent months,” said a supermarket employee, who did not want to be identified, as he returned to occupy the empty shelves.