MECCA, Saudi Arabia - Some of the 1.2 million foreign pilgrims and hundreds of thousands from Saudi Arabia expected to perform the annual hajj pilgrimage have started converging on the Muslim holy city of Mecca.
More than 1.07 million pilgrims have already arrived in Saudi Arabia, 972,000 of them by air for the hajj, which officially starts on January 19, Okaz newspaper reported Wednesday.
Another 17,000 arrived by sea, with more than 6,500 Sudanese and 1,000 Egyptian pilgrims crossing the Red Sea to the port of Jeddah, it said.
The desert kingdom, home to two of Islam's holiest sites of Mecca and Medina, last year received 1.4 million foreign pilgrims, in addition to some 473,000 from within the country.
The Islamic ritual is also a lucrative season for the western region of oil-rich Saudi Arabia, which reportedly earned about 5.2 billion riyals (1.38 billion dollars) from foreigners during last year's pilgrimage.
The 1.4 million foreign pilgrims who flocked to Mecca spent 1.4 billion riyals (373.3 million dollars) on accommodation, a survey showed. They also spent two billion (533.3 million dollars) on air transport, of which 20 percent went to state carrier Saudi Airlines, and the remainder on other services and gifts.
Figures on pilgrims are expected to keep rising, forcing the kingdom to increase its capacity to accommodate the largest annual Muslim gathering worldwide and where deadly stampedes do happen.
Estimates expect hajj figures to grow to three million in five years and to between 3.5 and 3.7 million in 10 years.
This would be in addition to more than 10 million performing the umrah (minor pilgrimage) every year by 2014.
The foreign ministry announced last week that it had issued more than 2.6 million visas for the umrah during the current Islamic calendar year 1425, up 16 percent on the previous year.
Last year's hajj saw 251 pilgrims trampled or suffocated to death during a stampede as they vied to stone three pillars representing the devil in Mina, near Mecca.
The incident prompted King Fahd to announce a major renovation project, which envisages boosting the capacity at the stoning site from 160,000 pilgrims an hour to 500,000.
Tragedies have occurred at the site in the past, with 14 people killed in 2002, 35 in 2001 and 118 in 1998 when more than 180 were also injured.
The highest death toll was in July 1990, when 1,426 people were crushed or suffocated during a stampede in a tunnel in Mina.
All Muslims are required to make the pilgrimage to Mecca, one of the five pillars of Islam, at least once in their lifetime, if they have the means to do so.
The hajj season ends on January 21, the first day of the Muslim feast of Eid al-Adha.
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