MAKKAH — The tourism and hotels committee of the Makkah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) has described hotel reservation levels for this year's Haj season as “extremely bad” and said they have dropped by about 50 percent from last year. It said they were likely to go down further, especially in areas with licensed buildings for pilgrims such as the Albank residential quarter and Al-Naseem plot that were earlier targeted by citizens and foreign residents from Gulf countries. The committee attributed this drop to the refusal of the Haj Ministry to increase pilgrim quotas for these countries. It said the ministry adhered very strongly this year to the Haj quotas allocated for each country and refused to increase them as it had done in the past. Talking to reporters in Makkah Wednesday afternoon, chairman of the committee Waleed Bin Saleh Abu Sabaah said the situation regarding hotel reservations this season was extremely bad and could not be compared to previous years that had experienced crises such as swine flu. He added: “Despite the obvious influence of these crises on hotel reservation levels, the market never sunk to these current levels.” Abu Sabaah believed the refusal of the Haj Ministry to increase Haj quotas might be the main cause for the serious drop in reservations in hotels and other buildings licensed for pilgrims. He indicated the ministry's actions could prevent about 400,000 people from performing Haj this year. He added: “If they were allowed to come, these pilgrims might rent between 1,000 and 1,500 buildings licensed for the accommodation of pilgrims.” — SG
