"Umroh pilgrims can feel closer to the Holly Land. After all, the waiting list of those who are willing to conduct hajj pilgrims is becoming longer and longer," Chairman of Hajj Travel Bureau Amphuri, Fuad Hasan Masyhur said here on Sunday.
He made the remarks on the sidelines of an exhibition themed: "The Sixth Garuda International Islamic Expo", which was opened by Deputy Minister for People`s Welfare Prof. Dr Agus Sartono last Friday.
Fuad said that there was an increasing number of companies such banks which provided umroh trip prizes for their customers.
"We predict that this year the number of umroh pilgrims going to Saudi Arabia to perform minor hajj services would reach 200,000 persons," Fuad said.
In the meantime, President Director of national flag carrier Garuda Indonesia, Emirsyah Satar said that his airlines had targeted 110,000 umroh pilgrims in 2011.
"There must be a 20 percent increase from 90,000 in 2010 to 110 in 2011," he said.
He said that passenger traffic for the Indonesia - Middle East route was about 1,4 million passengers, where workers and umroh passengers as well as religious tourism travelers were dominant.
"We are committed to increasing our services for umroh passengers. This year we will replace our B-747-400 planes with the B-777-300ER ones," he said.
Emirsyah said he was optimistic his airlines would be able to increase its passengers who conducted both umroh and religious-tourism trips.
"Through a high commitment and an exhibition like this, we hope that we can obtain long-weekend markets not only those on regular trips to Asian cities but also those on umroh trips," he said (*)
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Editor: Jafar M Sidik
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
