AccorHotels to Offer More Customized Services for Indonesians in Mecca, Medina
Jakarta. Hajj and umrah, or minor pilgrimage, are not just religious rituals for Muslims, they are also lucrative businesses for major hospitality players like the AccorHotels group, which operates more than 3,700 hotels in 92 countries throughout the world.
In Mecca and Medina, the two holiest cities for Muslims, the hotel chain operates the Zamzam Pullman Hotel that offers premium services for the 2.5 million people during the hajj season and 5.5 million people making the umrah trip throughout the year.
According to top executives from both hotels, Indonesia — the world's largest Muslim-majority country — is the third largest source of guests for the two-starred hotels, after Egypt and Pakistan.
"During hajj and umrah, we have almost one million guests coming from Indonesia, we hope to have more," Hamid Sidine, the general manager of ZamZam Pullman Mecca, told reporters on Tuesday (10/05) in a press conference in Jakarta.
"The hajj season starts with Indonesians, and finish with Indonesians," he said.
Saudi Arabia sets specific hajj and umrah quotas based on the size of the Muslim population in each country.
Guests from Indonesia make up around 10 percent of the total number of guests in both hotels, according to Sidine's rough estimate. The chain's biggest market is Egypt (20 percent), followed by Pakistan, the second largest Muslim-majority nation in the world (15 percent).
Zamzam Pullman Hotel Mecca, with 1,315 spacious rooms, is the leading hotel in Abraj Al Bait, trumping six other hotels in the area. In Mecca, Accor is the biggest chain with six hotels, offering about 6,200 rooms.
"We’re leading in Mecca, so we’re now competing with hotels in [neighboring city] Jeddah; because during the hajj, there are pilgrims who'd rather stay there," Sidine said.
In Medina, Accor offers 1,500 rooms, of which 835 rooms are in the Zamzam Pullman Hotel Medina.
"Indonesians stay for 40 days in Saudi Arabia during the hajj. They spend 20-25 days in Medina then they go to Mecca for the hajj rituals, and then they go home. The Indonesians make more impact on the Medina market than the Mecca market," Ashraf Madkour, the general manager of ZamZam Pullman Medina, said in the same press conference.
Both Sidine and Madkour were on business trips visiting Indonesoa.
Both Zamzam Pullman Hotel Mecca and Medina now offer restaurants serving Indonesian dishes cooked by Indonesian chefs. The hotels also plan to open a whole section staffed by Indonesians, including telephone operators and receptionists.
"We're trying to expand the number of Indonesian staff in our hotels. We can learn about [Indonesian] culture a lot [that way]. The staff can teach us about the dos and don'ts in serving Indonesain guests," Madkour said.
Madkour also revealed that the average age of people going on the hajj and umrah pilgrimage is getting lower.
"Ten years ago, the average age was 65. Today, it's about 55 and 53. Especially in umrah, you often see young couples with children. This has been happening for a few years, and is happening more and more," he said.
He also said more people from developed nations in Europe and North America — Austria, the Netherlands, the United States — now go on hajj and umrah trips.
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