Saudi’s $16bn religious tourism ‘not affected by Mers’
Dubai, June 6, 2014
The Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (Mers) will not affect Saudi Arabia’s $16 billion religious tourism industry, the kingdom’s travel and aviation industry executives said in a report.
An influx of visitors is expected in July during Ramadan and again during the annual Haj pilgrimage in October, said the Arab News report.
There has been ‘no economic impact from the virus,’ Mohammad Abdul Majeed, vice-president sales strategies at Saudi Arabian Airlines (Saudia) was quoted as saying, at the launch of a new travel industry report.
Despite criticism of the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Health and other officials for their handling and lack of transparency of Mers cases in the country, Majeed said that ‘it has been handled very well by the government,’ pointing out that there had been no drop in the number of pilgrimage travellers on the airline.
Muslims from around the world travel to Saudi Arabia each year to perform the Umrah and Haj.
Last year, 16.7 million visited Saudi Arabia, a 10 per cent increase, while thirty-two million Saudi Arabian nationals travelled within the country, a 7.5 per cent increase, said the report.
