Riyadh: Saudi Arbia’s Hajj Ministry for Umrah Affairs have confirmed that pilgrims and visitors coming to Kingdom can visit rest of Saudi Arabia during their 30-day Umrah visa, 15 days of which must be spent on visiting the Two Holy Mosques.
Before the existence of this decision pilgrims could not go out of Makkah and Madinah. Abdulaziz Wazzan, According to Al Arabiya News In-charge of the Hajj Ministry for Umrah Affairs, said that more than 1,000 pilgrims from the world arrived in the Kingdom last week and over 25,000 Umrah visas have been issued over the last four days, Saudi daily newspaper al-Youm has reported.
He also pointed out that the programs dedicated to Umrah for pilgrims this year comes as a qualitative leap in enabling pilgrims and visitors from outside the Kingdom to visit any city in the country during their 30-day Umrah visa, including 15 days to visit the Two Holy Mosques.
Wazzan confirmed that he expects that the number of pilgrims this year will reach 8.5 million pilgrims until the end of the month of Shawwal, adding that the number of pilgrims last year exceeded seven million.
According to official statistics, the total number of pilgrims who arrived in Madinah after performing Hajj rituals has so far reached 770,704 pilgrims.
The daily statistics reported by Madinah-based Unit for Media and Social Communication of Hajj Committee said that the total number remaining in Madinah is 175,878 pilgrims.
