Saudi Gazette report

RIYADH — Saudi Arabia has provided consummate services to more than 23.8 million pilgrims over the past 10 years, business daily Al-Eqtisadiah reported on Monday quoting the General Authority for Statistics (GaStat).

The Kingdom did not leave any stone unturned to serve Islam and Muslims in any field and area throughout its history, especially the guests of God who came to the country to perform Haj and Umrah in Makkah and visit the Prophet’s Mosque in Madinah, the authority said.

It said the total number of the pilgrims during the recently-concluded Haj was 2,371,658 of whom as many as 1,758,722 came from abroad and the rest were Saudi and non-Saudi pilgrims from within the country.

It said 23,289 vehicles transported the local pilgrims to Makkah.

According to the GaStat, 40.7 percent of the local pilgrims were Egyptians, 11.8 percent Pakistanis, 11.3 percent Indians, 9.9 percent Yemenis and 4.2 percent Sudanese while 22.1 percent constituted various other nationalities.

The authority said more than 287,000 government and private sector employees, including 12,000 women, served the pilgrims. The female employees worked in supervision and follow-up, general services, health, transport and communications fields.

The authority said more than 1.6 million foreign pilgrims arrived in the Kingdom by air, constituting about 94 percent of the pilgrims who came from abroad while 85,000 (5 percent) arrived by land and 16,000 (1 percent) by sea.

It said of the 612,053 domestic pilgrims, 118,554 were Saudi men and 63,182 Saudi women.

Nearly 41% of domestic pilgrims were Egyptian