This is a measure that breaks with the traditional system organized by travel agencies and allows each pilgrim to individually reserve both the plane ticket and the hotel.
With less than a month to go before the first post-coronavirus hajj, Saudi Arabia has decided to implement an individual online reservation system for pilgrims from Europe, the United States and Australia. This is a measure that breaks with the traditional system organized by travel agencies and allows each pilgrim to individually reserve both the plane ticket and the hotel. In countries that have a special Hajj ministry, the majority of Muslim countries, the online process will not be necessary because the trip will continue to be the responsibility of a ministry that awards places by lottery.
Agents consulted in Spain report that it is a measure adopted by surprise and that the argument defended by the Saudis is that with this measure the abuses of some agencies that inflated prices above 10,000 euros for seven days of pilgrimage will be cut. The client will now be able to manage the ticket directly with the airline of the kingdom and the hotels, without the need for intermediaries. The problem is that a large part of the pilgrims from the West “do not speak Arabic, they are a retired person who has saved their whole life for this trip and prefers to have a guide to help them and not a computer, it is a brake for the most older”, according to a pilgrimage professional consulted by this means.
The hajj is the pilgrimage that every Muslim must perform at least once in his life if his health and wallet allow it, according to the Koran. It is one of the five pillars of Islam (the other four are the profession of faith, prayer five times a day, fasting during Ramadan and almsgiving) and serves for the faithful to cleanse their souls and show that all are equal before God. . There are an estimated 1.8 billion Muslims in the world, so the number of requests for hajj far exceeds the capacity of the holy places.
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