'100,000 Jordanians to perform umra this month'

AMMAN — Around 100,000 Jordanians are expected to perform umra (the lesser Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca) within the next two weeks during schools' winter break, the Jordan Society of Tourism and Travel Agents (JTTA) said Tuesday.

According to JTTA President Shaher Hamdan, reservations for umra have been increasing since the beginning of January. 

Hamdan noted that the Saudi authorities had previously reduced the number of visa applications allocated for each agency to 30 per day, in order to facilitate the processing of visas, but returned to allowing more visa applications for umra to address the high demand.

During this time of year, some 10,000 Jordanians apply for umra visas through 107 travel agencies, according to JTTA figures. 

Around 9,000 pilgrims travel by land daily to perform umra, while 5,000 go by air, according to Yusuf Baker, head of the JTTA's committee for religious tourism.

The "large" influx puts pressure on the visa section at the Saudi embassy, in addition to the Omari and Mudawara crossings into Saudi Arabia.

Baker noted that the number of pilgrims doubles on Wednesdays and Thursdays, as people want to perform Friday prayers in Medina Munawara or Mecca.

"This leads to heavy traffic at border points and sometimes families have to wait for up to 72 hours," he told The Jordan Times, also citing the authorities' need to intensify security checks due to the large influx of pilgrims.

Registered figures show that 136 buses will be heading to Saudi Arabia through the Mudawara crossing and 56 through the Omari crossing on Wednesday, Baker said, expecting the number to be representative of 70 to 80 per cent of the actual number of trips.

Meanwhile, he called on Jordanians who receive umra visas to wait 72 hours before travelling so that their electronic visa data are available at the border crossing, a matter that will spare them long waiting hours.

Baker urged pilgrims to consider low-cost air travel, which costs just a bit more than land transport.

He explained that the price of an air ticket on a low-cost carrier was JD330 last year, while it currently stands at around JD180.