Read the latest news from around the Middle East and Africa region.

The number of religious travelers for Hajj increased drastically this year after two years where Saudi Arabian authorities restricted the number of travelers due to the COVID-19 pandemic, HNN's Terence Baker reports.

During the event, which took place in early July in Makkah and Madinah, hotel demand has been historically resilient.

“The average daily rate always performed around $600. Apart from the pandemic, the only impact for some years [in which performance was] below $600 is when there was a change in the supply breakdown per class,” said Mohamed El Hadi, account manager, Middle East and Africa for STR, CoStar’s hospitality analytics firm.

Officials in Saudi Arabia are planning to spend $1 trillion over the next decade to transform the country into "a mass-market tourist destination," the Wall Street Journal reports.

The newspaper reports that a big part of welcoming more tourists to the country will be to add more hotel supply.

"As part of plans to create new economic sectors unrelated to oil, Prince Mohammed wants to attract 55 million international tourists annually by 2030, just over half the number that visited France, the world’s most popular destination, in 2019," the newspaper reports. "Nearly 3.5 million foreigners came last year — excluding religious pilgrims — and 6.1 million in the first half of 2022."

The Wall Street Journal reports 21 civilians were killed when a hotel in Mogadishu, Somali, became the site of a violent and prolonged terrorist attack that ended on Aug. 21. A 30-hour siege started when militants attacked the Hayat Hotel, leaving at least 117 people injured.

"Somali authorities didn’t say who was behind the assault on the Hayat, a popular hangout for local politicians and businessmen, but called it a terrorist attack," the newspaper reported. "Somalia’s local al-Qaeda offshoot, al-Shabaab, claimed responsibility for the siege in a statement issued by its Shahada News Agency and translated by SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors extremist media."

While the 2022 iteration of the FIFA World Cup is still three months away, the Associated Press reports the Dubai International Airport has already recorded an uptick in travel.

The airport, which is now the busiest in the world, is expected to see a wave of travelers as soccer fans flock to the Middle East from around the world.

“It’s a very, very welcome surge of traffic,” said Paul Griffiths, who oversees the airport. He added the Dubai International Airport expects to see a return to pre-pandemic levels by 2023.

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