Saudi earns $16.5bn from hajj

Saudi Arabia raised $16.5 billion (SAR62 billion; Dh60.55 billion) from Muslim pilgrimages this year to Makkah and Madina in the west of the kingdom, a Saudi newspaper reported on Thursday.

Al-Hayat, citing religious tourism sources, said a total of 12 million pilgrims visited Islam's holiest sites during the annual hajj which took place this year at the end of October or for the year-long umrah, or minor pilgrimage.

The pilgrims -- including 3.1 million who made the hajj, including 1.7 million from abroad, according to official figures -- spent 62 billion riyals ($16.5 billion), a rise of 10 per cent over 2011 because of increased costs, it said.

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