Inflation has spread its tentacles so far that it has become difficult to perform religious rituals even, reported 24NewsHD TV channel on Wednesday.
Due to increase in the US dollar and Saudi Riyal’s rates, the prices of air tickets, too, have skyrocketed, making it hard for the people to travel to Saudi Arabia for Umrah.
This does not end here as the cost of the Umrah Package during the holy month of Ramadan without air ticket has exceeded Rs0.4 million, while in ordinary days the cost has risen to over Rs0.25 million.
The result is that number of pilgrims has dropped, leaving travel agents worried.
Talking to 24News, Faheem Aslam, a travel agent, said that customers were shocked to hear the prices of these packages, and they returned without asking any further question.
He went on to say that inflation had taken its toll on the buying capacity of people so much so that their business had almost come to a standstill.
Faheem further said that hotel rents at both Mecca and Medina had gone through the roof owing to great rush of pilgrims.
He said things could get better only after foreign currency rates came down.
Reporter: Habib Khan