Jakarta (ANTARA) - The Indonesian Ministry of Religious Affairs’ Hajj Organizing Agency (BPH) has prepared 300 hotels across the cities of Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia to accommodate 203,320 regular Hajj pilgrims during this year’s Hajj season.
"The government has readied 300 hotels, with 205 located in Mecca and 95 others in Medina. This numbers are adequate to serve 203,320 regular Hajj pilgrims," the agency's Director of Overseas Hajj Services Muchlis M. Hanafi said.
Speaking at an online Hajj press conference monitored from Jakarta on Sunday, he emphasized that all selected hotels in Mecca are located within a 4.5-kilometer radius of the Al-Haram Mosque.
He added that the government had arranged special buses to help ease the mobility of pilgrims to and from the holy mosque.
As for hotels in Medina, Hanafi noted that all are situated in Markaziyah, an area closely connected to the Al-Masjid al Nabawy, the Prophet’s Mosque.
Hanafi then encouraged prospective pilgrims not to rush back to their hotels after performing prayers, as all accommodations are easily reachable from the mosque.
"Make the most of your time at the Prophet’s Mosque by reciting dhikr. This way, we can avoid long queues at hotel entrances," he advised the prospective Indonesian pilgrims.
Furthermore, he also appealed to the pilgrims to keep carrying identity cards displaying their names and numbers of their hotels when going out.
He then assured the public that the government had prepared all the services required to make this year's Hajj season a success.
"As of today, the readiness of all services for Indonesian Hajj pilgrims has reached 100 percent," he stated.
The services encompass five key areas, namely accommodation, transportation, consumption, general services, and necessities related to the peak period of the pilgrimage.
