Tourism Mecca
The meaning of Eid al-Adha is the 'feast of the sacrifice' and is celebrated around two months after Eid al-Fitr.
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While diversification efforts are underway to expand Saudi Arabia's tourism sector beyond religious tourism, the hajj pilgrimage continues to be a vital pillar of the country's tourism and economic landscape.
Mecca is Islam’s holiest city and a focal point for followers of the faith. It’s the birthplace of Prophet Muhammad, where Muslims believe he first received God’s revelations of the Quran. It’s the location of the Kaaba, the black, cube-shaped structure that Muslims around the world turn to five times a day when praying.
Away from the pilgrim-dominated areas, the city’s modern neighbourhoods spread out among boulevards with strip malls, gyms, schools and a university. The city has little of the glitz of Gulf cities such as Dubai or Doha, or even Riyadh. The malls are modest, though bubble tea shops and well known chains such as Sephora are moving in. One mall’s food court had a sign proclaiming that the U.S. fast-food chicken chain Popeyes was opening soon.
Daily life does make concessions to the city’s sacredness. Mecca has no cinemas, despite the government lifting a nationwide ban on movie theatres in 2018. For a cinema, residents go to the coastal city of Jeddah, about 70 kilometers (35 miles) away. Wedding halls are tucked away from sacred areas.
This week is the feast of Eid-ul-Adha. The feast of Sacrifice, is the second major Muslim festival in the Islamic calendar after Eid al-Fitr which marks the end of Ramadan - the month of fasting. It varies according to moon sightings in different parts of the world.
Muslims celebrate Eid ul-Adha on the final day of the Hajj which is the pilgrimage to Mecca or Makkah in Saudi Arabia. This pilgrimage takes place every year and all Muslims who are physically able to do so should visit Mecca at least once in their lives.
During the Hajj, people carry out acts of worship and stand before the Ka’bah, a shrine built by Ibrahim and praise Allah together.
And once a year, the city’s population effectively doubles for up to a month as Hajj pilgrims from around the world flow in, as is happening this week. Security tightens in the streets to direct traffic as massive crowds move around the Grand Mosque and out to the holy sites in the nearby desert like Mina, Muzdalifa and Mount Arafat.
Meccans used to have more personal interaction with the Hajj pilgrims. Back in the day, people had their homes open to pilgrims. When pilgrims got sick some were treated in the homes of residents. But the measures authorities have put in to control and organise the crowds have imposed a distance. Huge investment pouring in has transformed Mecca.
Authorities in the kingdom said this year, more than 1.6 million pilgrims had already arrived for the pilgrimage as of Sunday. The gathering officially starts on Tuesday. Hajj, a once-in-a-lifetime duty for every able-bodied Muslim who can afford it, is a major source of income for the Saudi government from worshippers’ lodging, transport, fees and gifts.
The kingdom earned about $12 billion annually from the 2.6 million pilgrims that used to visit Mecca and Medina for hajj, and another 19 million visitors for the umrah, according to official data for 2019, or the last year before the pandemic hit the global travel industry. Umrah is another form of pilgrimage which can be carried out at any time of the year.
Vast crowds of men wrapped in white and women mostly in black circled the Kaaba in Mecca’s Holy Mosque as security officers walked among pilgrims, closely watching the ritual.
Green barriers were set outside the mosque to direct the crowds and prevent stampedes that killed hundreds in the past.
Many pilgrims said they were happy to take the spiritual journey and buy gifts for their family members despite high prices.
“Even if I had to sell everything to come (to hajj), I would have done it… I have been trying for three years already,” said Alameer Eid Al-Omar, a 52-year-old pilgrim from Egypt.
Such devotion provides business for the merchants of Mecca. And that goes a long way to make tourism in Mecca significant.