All foreign Muslim students have all began a trip back to Mecca but the global industry of tour operators surrounding the annual holy event of Hajj in the Islamic calendar is being faced with many uncertainties nowadays.
The future looks bleak with enormous financial and logistical challenges for many travelers. Last month, a few weeks before the commencement of Hajj, Saudi Arabia institutionalize a new online portal which is called Motawif.
This new portal will be used by all pilgrims from Europe, the Americas and Australia. They must now book a slot using a lottery system, that is longstanding tour managers in those nations will be rendered redundant.
On average, travelers who are based in United Kingdom will have their managers organizing trips for only about 20,000 – 25,000 pilgrims annually. But many of them were only noted on this new development very late. They never knew of the drastic changes being introduced.
Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Hajj and Umrah stressed that, they had taken the necessary measures to make access to all those services readily available. They will also do their best to keep numbers manageable and work for a more fraud free platform. There will be the removal of all untrustworthy agents who claim to give automatically registration to pilgrims; the leader of the planning committee emphasized.
The committee formed will discuss where pilgrims can get the online bookings which would be streamlined and ensure the safety of the visas of pilgrims.
Last week there was a mass commotion as many British, European and North American Muslims were left stranded at various airports in the country. These pilgrims were sadly turned away at their destinations. Most of them never knew about the new development yet they were denied access into Mecca. They also complained of prices jumping too quickly at a blink of an eye.
Lack of proper facilities mainly for disabled and elderly pilgrims are also not provided. Again, cases like when having to share hotel rooms with strangers. “The Saudi Arabians made a very late and very quick decision, which affected us no doubt”, said Mohammad Arif of Haji Tours in Manchester, a travel agency with franchises across the UK specializing in pilgrimage packages to Mecca and Medina.
The decision was simply a length of warning that went around. We were only told about the booking system at the same time as everyone else – even though we were an approved company,” he told Al Jazeera.
He said that finite having to shuffle some of his customers into the Motawif system, he was still involved in helping some of them. “I had to ensure wheelchairs for an elderly couple, and people to push them, they’re not set up for that yet and provided.” The passengers enumerated that, they would be thankful to Saudi Arabia if they somehow remain committed to the rules and Hajj process from the UK, but they will prepare in no time soon.”
The British Labor Party politician Yasmin Qureshi, chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Hajj and Umrah, explained thoroughly that, she has been in contact with the Saudi current government over the rigmarole facing pilgrims from the UK. She made it known that, to a correspondence of alJazeera saying; “Despite writing to them many times we’ve eventually heard back that the Saudi current government has sent a team to Britain to deal specifically with assisting those going to Hajj.
She continued by saying that, they have gotten some help from the other end at the British consulate general in Jeddah. The digital move has been coming for some time now, quipped Seán McLoughlin, Professor of the Anthropology of Islam at the University of Leeds. He told Al Jazeera that “The Motawif system is essentially a third generation of Hajj tour-related enterprises or lucrative.
There are independent travelers in the West from the ‘60s” from people onwards after mass migration from Asian and African countries with large Muslim communities. People had to book Hajj from operators in Europe and beyond. But the new trend ensures that they all buy from online. Since 2006, Hajj visits could only be booked via licensed agents.
A prominent British researcher called McLoughlin has studied the tourism systems if Saudi Arabia and have come out with a new way this are organized. He explained that, “Saudi Arabia has been trying to develop a form of religious tourism since the 1990s. And what’s happening nowadays has to be viewed with the future in mind.
Many people think that, this new move by Mecca authorities is not going to be prosperous. But it seems this move may have come about suddenly without people having a fair idea of the measures. Though it has been on the blue prints for some time many tour operators probably sensed that but perhaps didn’t know what form it might take.
The main issue for Haji Tours’ Arif was that, as soon as it was communicated. Hajj was back on, his company started taking bookings the world over. Thus, the measures which was put in place has helped the sector to be patronized by many people.
Thank you for reading.
Source: Aljazeera
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