RIYADH, 12 September 2007 — The rates for Umrah packages have doubled due to increased demand during the holy month of Ramadan. An unprecedented rush of pilgrims from Riyadh is anticipated this weekend, as many people aim to begin the fasting month in the holy city of Makkah.
Travel operators have increased the price of their weekend package from SR100 to SR200 per passenger. Those wishing to go to Madinah and Makkah would be charged SR30 extra. Pilgrims have to make their own arrangements for food.
More than 100 luxury coaches carrying Umrah passengers are scheduled to leave for the holy cities from the capital today. The trip starts in Riyadh at 4 p.m. and finishes on Friday midnight.
A five-day package to Makkah and Madinah, including travel and accommodation, only costs SR300 normally. The offer includes two-day stay in Madinah and three-day lodging in Makkah. The journey begins on Mondays and ends on Fridays. The pilgrims leave the holy city of Makkah after Juma prayers so that they reach Riyadh around midnight.
Meanwhile, a dawah group in Rawdah area is organizing concessionary trips to Makkah. A spokesman for the group said a fleet of luxury coaches would leave Riyadh on Sept. 19 and Oct. 3.
The trips, exclusively for men, cost SR40 and SR60 respectively. “Preference would be given to recent converts and bookings are being offered on a first-come-first-serve basis,” said the spokesman, adding that the group has organized 40 trips with 20 leaving on Sept. 19. The rest will leave on Oct. 3.
“A pilgrim can make use of this service only once during the month since the whole package is subsidized by the dawah group and we want more people to benefit from this package,” the spokesman said.
Muhammad Imran from a dawah group in Rabwah said his center had made arrangements to take pilgrims from Riyadh free of charge on Sept. 19.
“We will take them in 16 buses and provide them with food, accommodation and free travel to Makkah. This is a service offered to deserving Muslims who attend dawah classes at our center,” the official added.
Imran said there are 24 dawah groups in the city that have their own arrangements to ferry Umrah pilgrims during the holy month.
Fawzer Farook, a social worker in Riyadh, has organized a trip for a group of Sri Lankan families on Sept. 19 at a nominal rate of SR120 per head for the weekend package.
“The fare is subsidized by another dawah group in the capital,” Fawzer said, adding that he had already found the required number of pilgrims for his coach, which is leaving next Wednesday.
