EXPERIENCE ECONOMY: RELIGIOUS TOURISM •
Saudi Arabia is turning religious tourism into one of the world’s most ambitious hospitality, mobility and investment stories, while making the journey to Makkah and Madinah smoother, smarter and more meaningful for millions of Muslims
T here are few journeys in the world as emotionally charged as the road to Makkah and Madinah. For generations, pilgrims have saved, planned and prayed for the chance to stand in the Holy Cities, to perform Hajj or Umrah, and to connect with a faith shared by almost two billion people worldwide. In 2026, the purpose of the journey remains the same, but the scale and sophistication of everything around it - and supporting it - is changing at speed. Saudi Arabia is modernising one of the world’s oldest and most important travel markets, expanding capacity, improving service standards, digitising the pilgrim experience and turning religious tourism into a central pillar of its Vision 2030 economy. The global travel industry should not be fooled into thinking this is a niche segment. This is a high-volume, year-round, emotionally resilient market with extraordinary long-term fundamentals in place. Hajj remains a once-a-year peak, tightly managed through quotas and permits. Umrah, by contrast, has become a powerful 365-day growth engine, increasingly supported by easier visas, improved air access, digital planning tools, new hotels, better transport and a broader push to encourage pilgrims to see more of Saudi Arabia before or after their spiritual journey. The numbers tell part of the story, with Saudi Arabia recording more than 1.7 million Hajj pilgrims in 2026, including 1.55 million international pilgrims and
momentum. GASTAT reported 15.2 million Umrah performers in the first quarter of 2025 alone, followed by 11.3 million in the fourth quarter, split almost evenly between 5.7 million international pilgrims and 5.6 million performers from within the kingdom. The bigger strategic horizon is 2030, when Saudi Arabia aims to welcome 30 million Hajj and Umrah pilgrims annually. That ambition sits at the heart of the Pilgrim Experience Programme, one of Vision 2030’s flagship initiatives, designed to improve every stage of the journey, from the pre-trip planning and arrival, to rituals, accommodation, mobility, healthcare, spiritual enrichment and departure. The real change is happening in the space between scale and service. Saudi Arabia is moving the pilgrim journey up a gear, pairing greater capacity with a new focus on quality of experience, encompassing comfort, safety, access and meaning. The infrastructure race reflects that ambition, with more than 218,000 hotel rooms, branded residences and serviced apartments planned across major developments in Makkah and Madinah, and more than 105,000 hotel rooms under construction or in advanced planning across Saudi Arabia. For a market grounded in faith and increasingly defined by digital platforms, aviation growth, rail connectivity and hospitality investment, religious tourism is becoming one of the kingdom’s most important visitor-economy stories. A SMARTER PATH TO PILGRIMAGE Until fairly recently, the pilgrim journey to Saudi involved multiple layers of administration, long waits and heavy
160,646 domestic pilgrims. Umrah is adding year-round
Left: The Holy City of Makkah is a hotbed of development
SPOTLIGHT RIYADH | 79
Made with FlippingBook Digital Proposal Creator