End of Umrah season will not exceed 600K pilgrims

CAIRO – 11 June 2017: The number of pilgrims at the end of Umrah season (the minor Islamic pilgrimage) would not exceed 600 thousand pilgrims, said the Chairman of the Committee for Religious Tourism Iman Sami in a Sunday statement.

Sami added that the first flights of Umrah take place “in the last ten days of Ramadan” starting from June 11 which marks ‘Ramadan 16’ to June 17 ‘Ramadan 22.’

She also said that the price of Umrah program from Egypt to Mecca reached LE 161.000 ($8.8 thousand) so the number of pilgrims decreased than the previous years.

In 2016, official statistics issued by the Saudi Ministry of Hajj revealed that the number of Egyptian pilgrims who received Umrah visas reached to one million and 303 thousand and 67 Umrah pilgrims after the end of the season.

Hajj is the major Islamic pilgrimage, obligatory for every Muslim once in a lifetime if they are financially and physically capable; however Umrah is by choice.