{"id":1239,"date":"2018-04-29T12:50:17","date_gmt":"2018-04-29T12:50:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theparkdb.com\/blog\/?p=509"},"modified":"2024-05-05T12:04:33","modified_gmt":"2024-05-05T12:04:33","slug":"religious-travel-focus-saudi-arabia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparkdb.com\/blog\/religious-travel-focus-saudi-arabia\/","title":{"rendered":"Religious Travel (Focus: Saudi Arabia)"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_63 ez-toc-wrap-left counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-grey ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title \" >Table of Contents<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><a href=\"#\" class=\"ez-toc-pull-right ez-toc-btn ez-toc-btn-xs ez-toc-btn-default ez-toc-toggle\" aria-label=\"Toggle Table of Content\"><span class=\"ez-toc-js-icon-con\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-3' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-3'><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-3' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparkdb.com\/blog\/religious-travel-focus-saudi-arabia\/#High_Visitation\" title=\"High Visitation\">High Visitation<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparkdb.com\/blog\/religious-travel-focus-saudi-arabia\/#Economic_Impacts\" title=\"Economic Impacts\">Economic Impacts<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparkdb.com\/blog\/religious-travel-focus-saudi-arabia\/#Saudi_Arabia\" title=\"Saudi Arabia\">Saudi Arabia<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparkdb.com\/blog\/religious-travel-focus-saudi-arabia\/#An_Emerging_Destination\" title=\"An Emerging Destination\">An Emerging Destination<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-3' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-3'><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-3' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-5\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparkdb.com\/blog\/religious-travel-focus-saudi-arabia\/#Engagement\" title=\"Engagement\">Engagement<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-6\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparkdb.com\/blog\/religious-travel-focus-saudi-arabia\/#Religious_Travel_in_Saudi_Arabia\" title=\"Religious Travel in Saudi Arabia\">Religious Travel in Saudi Arabia<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n\n<p><span >Attractions have the ability to\u00a0draw tens of millions of people annually through their gates and completely change the economies of cities and states.\u00a0 In effect, our industry is the study and harnessing of, massive tourism flows.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span >This is no surprise.\u00a0 But, what may be surprising is that even the largest themed attractions pale in comparison to the religious travel &#8220;market&#8221;, if we can call it that.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"High_Visitation\"><\/span><span   ><strong>High Visitation<\/strong><\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 20px; font-family: 'EB Garamond';\">Visitation driven by faith; pilgrimages, or visits to temples, churches, and mosques, experience volumes that would be enviable to any attraction operator, with volumes\u00a0into\u00a0the 10-30 million range.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.theparkdb.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Picture1-1.png\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-527 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theparkdb.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Picture1-1.png\" width=\"2403\" height=\"1693\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Economic_Impacts\"><\/span><strong><span   >Economic Impacts<\/span><\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 20px; font-family: 'EB Garamond';\">Religious visitation has cascading economic impacts because of nights booked in nearby accommodations, sales of food and beverage as well as souvenirs, and other ancillary spending.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 20px; font-family: 'EB Garamond';\">This is a concept that Walt Disney understood well when he developed Disney World in Orlando, which famously sought to extend\u00a0the length of stay on Disney properties from 7 hours, in the case of Disneyland Anaheim &#8211; to 7 days.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 20px; font-family: 'EB Garamond';\">Religious tourism and pilgrimages experience the same dynamic.\u00a0 One of the most prominent examples is visitation to Vatican City, where the Vatican&#8217;s budget shortfalls are made up by tourism and souvenir\/stamp sales, which in total account for more than $100 million in revenues, and approximately $60 million in profits.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Saudi_Arabia\"><\/span><strong><span   >Saudi Arabia<\/span><\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 20px; font-family: 'EB Garamond';\">But by far the biggest, most mind-blowing religious pilgrimage impact in the world are Hajj and Umrah* in Saudi Arabia.\u00a0 Accounting for over $20-30 billion in revenues worldwide (much of it accruing to Saudi Arabia), the pilgrimage to Makkah, which is required during the lifetime of devout Muslims, has no peer in the travel and tourism industry.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 20px; font-family: 'EB Garamond';\">You might note that $20 billion is more than the GDP of many countries!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.theparkdb.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Picture2-1.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-513\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theparkdb.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Picture2-1.png\" width=\"786\" height=\"621\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"font-size: 10px; font-family: Geologica;\">*While both Hajj and Umrah refer to the pilgrimage to Makkah, in Saudi Arabia, by Muslims.\u00a0 However, Umrah can take place anytime during the year, while Hajj takes place only during specific days during the last month of the Islamic calendar.<\/span>\u00a0 \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h1><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"An_Emerging_Destination\"><\/span><span   ><strong>An Emerging Destination<\/strong><\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h1>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 20px; font-family: 'EB Garamond';\">Saudi Arabia is quite a germane topic these days in the tourism and travel industry.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 20px; font-family: 'EB Garamond';\">Among other developments, the ride park operator <a href=\"https:\/\/gulfnews.com\/news\/gulf\/saudi-arabia\/six-flags-to-open-in-riyadh-in-2022-1.2200238\">Six Flags has announced a first ride park in Riyadh<\/a>,\u00a0which has set off a flurry of interest in other parts of the country, such as on the Gulf Coast and King Abdullah Economic City.\u00a0 Add to this the recently announced <a href=\"http:\/\/vision2030.gov.sa\/en\">Vision 2030<\/a>\u00a0plan, which has, among other announcements, hinted at the relaxing of visa regulations, and resort development along the Red Sea coast, and Saudi Arabia has been a market to watch.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 20px; font-family: 'EB Garamond';\">But &#8211; leisure developments notwithstanding, Hajj and Umrah still dominate the Saudi tourism landscape.\u00a0 Foreign pilgrims account for more than 8 million visits annually, and religious pilgrimage occupies a central tenet of the Vision 2030 program, which seeks to increase these numbers to 30 million by &#8211; you guessed it, the year 2030.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.theparkdb.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Picture11-1.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-529 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theparkdb.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Picture11-1.png\" width=\"2403\" height=\"1694\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Engagement\"><\/span><strong><span   >Engagement<\/span><\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 20px; font-family: 'EB Garamond';\">Our Analytics team\u00a0recently had the chance to work with the Saudi developer Manara for an opportunity relevant to this whole discussion.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-514 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theparkdb.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Manara.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"270\" height=\"205\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 20px; font-family: 'EB Garamond';\">The core question we were\u00a0tasked with\u00a0was: <strong>if there was a potential Islam-themed private\u00a0tourism destination developed in Saudi Arabia, what would be the scope and nature of the economic opportunity?\u00a0 What would such an attraction look like?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Religious_Travel_in_Saudi_Arabia\"><\/span><strong><span   >Religious Travel in Saudi Arabia<\/span><\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 20px; font-family: 'EB Garamond';\">While we can&#8217;t share all the details, here are general observations that we hope you&#8217;ll find useful.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 20px; font-family: 'EB Garamond';\">As staggering as the pilgrimage industry for Hajj and Umrah are, the <strong>domestic<\/strong> Saudi tourism market outnumbers international tourists by a factor of 2 to 1 &#8211; more than 50 million domestic trips taken during 2016!\u00a0 Indeed, this is a phenomenon that didn&#8217;t go unnoticed by our Client and others we interviewed on the ground.\u00a0 Due to limited things to do within Saudi Arabia, many Saudis (too many, according to some), leave the country for other tourism options.\u00a0 Herein lies a massive opportunity.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.theparkdb.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Picture4-1.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-517 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theparkdb.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Picture4-1.png\" width=\"750\" height=\"593\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 20px; font-family: 'EB Garamond';\">Over half of foreign tourists to Saudi Arabia are arriving for the purposes of religious pilgrimage &#8211; Hajj or Ummrah.\u00a0 The rest arrive for purposes of visiting friends and family, business, or other reasons.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 20px; font-family: 'EB Garamond';\">Makkah and Madinah are the two likely cities for a potential Islam-themed attraction, as they are the two essential stops on any itinerary for pilgrimage.\u00a0 Of the two destinations, Makkah has the significantly higher resident population (7.5 million versus 1.6 million) and\u00a0receives a much higher volume of tourists (14 million pilgrims versus 6 million for Madinah).\u00a0 For these reasons alone, with\u00a0all else being equal (i.e., land cost and availability), Makkah is the obvious choice.While Madinah does not\u00a0appear to be a\u00a0mandatory stop on Hajj\/Ummrah itineraries, Makkah definitely is.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.theparkdb.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Picture1-2.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-533 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theparkdb.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Picture1-2.png\" width=\"700\" height=\"628\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 20px; font-family: 'EB Garamond';\">While Umrah visitation takes place as a controlled flow throughout the year, Hajj is extremely seasonal and would cause nightmares for any traditional attraction operator.\u00a0 <strong>With a\u00a0peak month ratio for visitation of between <em><u>25-30%<\/u><\/em>,<\/strong> and with day-of-month peaking of 5%, this translates into design day ratios of over 1-1.5%.\u00a0 While these might not be the highest design day ratios in the world (here&#8217;s looking at you, China Golden Week), the monthly seasonality is unparalleled, and results in hotel occupancies that are at full occupancy during Hajj, but between 30-40% during the rest of the year.\u00a0 <\/span><strong><span style=\"font-size: 20px; font-family: 'EB Garamond';\">This is all to say that sizing will be a nightmare.<\/span><br \/>\n<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.theparkdb.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Picture-6-1.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-521 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theparkdb.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Picture-6-1.png\" width=\"658\" height=\"496\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 20px; font-family: 'EB Garamond';\">An interesting feature of attractions in the Middle East, and Saudi\u00a0is no exception, is the fact that the high heat skews opening hours.\u00a0 Instead of operating on schedules that open shortly before noon and close in the evening, <\/span><strong><span style=\"font-size: 20px; font-family: 'EB Garamond';\">attractions usually open at mid-day and close past midnight.<\/span><br \/>\n<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.theparkdb.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Picture7-1.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-523 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theparkdb.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Picture7-1.png\" width=\"787\" height=\"648\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 20px; font-family: 'EB Garamond';\"><strong>Pilgrims to Saudi Arabia arrive predominantly in tour groups.<\/strong> This is significant, as it impacts how they travel, where they go, and how much they are willing to spend.\u00a0 While exact statistics are not available, based on our interviews, we estimate that 80-90% of pilgrims travel through licensed tour operators, rather than as independent travelers.\u00a0 These pilgrims purchase tour packages from the operators directly, and are subject to <strong><u>relatively fixed itineraries<\/u><\/strong>.\u00a0 This means that tapping into this market source, which is significant, has to be through the tour operators themselves, with perhaps some\u00a0global marketing.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.theparkdb.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Picture8.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-524\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theparkdb.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Picture8.png\" width=\"561\" height=\"371\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.theparkdb.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Picture14-1.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-537\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theparkdb.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Picture14-1.png\" width=\"595\" height=\"381\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 20px; font-family: 'EB Garamond';\">Tour operators that we interviewed indicated an average level of approximately 80 SAR for a religious-themed attraction.\u00a0 Many pilgrims are from developing countries, and operators from these countries initially pushed back against the idea of a paid attraction. Although when pressed, operators from Pakistan and India indicated acceptable pricing of between 0 and 25 SAR.\u00a0 The outlier on the graph below (200 SAR) is from a tour operator located in the United States.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.theparkdb.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Picture14.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-535\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theparkdb.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Picture14.png\" width=\"567\" height=\"429\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 20px; font-family: 'EB Garamond';\">For more information about the Manara project, and any questions at all, please <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theparkdb.com\/pages\/services\">contact our Analytics Team<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Attractions have the ability to\u00a0draw tens of millions of people annually through their gates and completely change the economies of cities and states.\u00a0 In effect, our industry is the study and harnessing of, massive tourism flows. This is no surprise.\u00a0 But, what may be surprising is that even the largest themed attractions pale in comparison [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3772,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[59,61,62,63,64,65],"class_list":["post-1239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle-east","tag-hajj","tag-pilgrimage","tag-religious-tourism","tag-saudi-arabia","tag-umrah","tag-vatican"],"acf":{"":"","bfi_title":"","bfi_title_2":"","bfi_description":"","chart_image":"","chart_title":"","chart_description":"","bc_title":"","bc_sub_title":"","bc_content":"","bc_right_side_content":"","highlighted_image":"","highlighted_sub_title":"","highlighted_title":"","highlighted_bottom_text":"","highlighted_button_text":"","highlighted_button_link":"","below_highlighted_title":"","below_highlighted_sub_title":"","below_highlighted_content":"","below_highlighted_right_side_title":"","below_highlighted_list":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparkdb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparkdb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparkdb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparkdb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparkdb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparkdb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1239\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparkdb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparkdb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparkdb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparkdb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}