Demand for Hajj, the annual pilgrimage to the Holy Cities of Saudi Arabia, Makkah and Madinah, returned to pre-pandemic levels in 2022, according to sources.
The pilgrimage — which in 2022 was from July 7-12 — is one of the five pillars of Islam, with every able Muslim expected to make the journey once during their lifetime.
Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Hajj set the number of permitted pilgrims in 2022 to 1 million, while in 2021 and 2020, when large numbers of people remained unvaccinated, only 60,000 and 10,000, respectively, were permitted to attend.
Mohamed El Hadi — account manager, Middle East & Africa, for STR, CoStar’s hospitality analytics firm — said the Hajj season always shows strong demand, above 95%, even in 2015 when a crane collapsed over the Masjid al-Haram mosque, the final destination for pilgrims, a couple of days before the Hajj started.
He said demand was only affected in 2020 and 2021, when the Haram was closed and travel was restricted.
“In 2022, with the Haram opened and [the returning] ease of travel restrictions to Saudi Arabia, the demand level spiked to be only 10% below the average of the past 12 years,” he said.
“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,” El Hadi said, adding that switch was from luxury and upper upscale to upper upscale and upscale.
The return of Hajj has been celebrated by both pilgrims and hoteliers.
“Our two Makkah hotels re-opened mid-April to prepare for Hajj,” said Dimitris Manikis, president, Europe, Middle East, Eurasia and Africa, Wyndham Hotels & Resorts.
“Based on conversations with our local teams, [our hotels] had a successful Hajj season being full with tour-operator business at very competitive rates … [but] anecdotal feedback from the hotels is that Hajj was not as strong as the market would have expected,” he said.
Satya Anand, president, Europe, Middle East and Africa, Marriott International, said the return of the annual event comes at an exciting time for the hospitality industry in Saudi Arabia.
“The country continues to build a thriving new tourism sector, which presents great opportunities for our existing portfolio of hotels, as well as for our expansion across the kingdom,” he said.
The Saudi Arabian government plans as part of its Vision 2030 to permit 30 million pilgrims to visit the two cities by 2030.
Pilgrims and Tourists
Vision 2030 also includes so called tourism “giga-developments” such as the Red Sea Project, NEOM and AlUla, which is close to Madinah and will have six resorts, including upcoming ones from Aman Resorts, Banyan Tree and Habitas.
"As the Holy Cities of Makkah and Madinah continue to increase their capacity for pilgrims … overall, we’ve seen great occupancy numbers, and our hotels continue to exceed the industry average. Today, we have over 35 open properties and more than 10,000 rooms in the country,” Anand said.
He added the firm's new properties in the region include the 274-room Jeddah Marriott Hotel Madinah Road, Residence Inn by Marriott Dammam and Marriott Executive Apartments Al Khobar.
The firm’s Makkah pipeline includes two Fairfield Inn assets with a combined 4,000 keys, a 1,000 room Aloft — which will be brand’s largest property in the world — and a Courtyard by Marriott.
A Courtyard asset also is planned for Madinah, with the two properties having an approximate combined room count of 500. There will also be a new-build Sheraton in Madinah that will have 600 rooms.