Regional focus
A kingdom F
or most of its history, Mecca was a backwater. As recently as 1900, nearly fifteen centuries into the Islamic experiment, barely 40,000 people lived here. Those faithful Muslims who came from overseas travelled by horse or camel, wobbling across the desert in snaking caravans. When they arrived, they slept in tents, weaving past chilli-coloured medieval towers towards the holy places in the centre of town. Even during the hajj – the most auspicious time of year to visit – Mecca was a sleepy place. Sepia photos from the dawn of the 20th-century show just a few thousand pilgrims crowded together, flanked by a crumbling Ottoman castle and a mosque.
Hotel Management International /
www.hmi-online.com
of possibilities
For decades, millions of people have fl ocked to Saudi Arabia each year as Muslim pilgrims to the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. Now, with the government eager to diversify the national economy away from oil and gas dependency, hotels and hospitality ventures are sprouting up all over the country. Andrea Valentino speaks to experts across Saudi hospitality to learn how the kingdom’s long heritage of Islamic tourism is shaping a new era of luxury hotel, and how the very structure of Saudi society will need to change if the revolution is to thrive.
This old Mecca has disappeared, and it has been replaced by the Abraj Al-Bait. A $15bn tower, 601m tall, the complex hangs over the city and the kaaba like a cloud of dust. It has seven hotels, a shopping mall and a carpark capable of hosting over 1,000 vehicles. This is the Saudi Arabia we know: wealthy, thrusting, striving to wash the past glories away like errant grains of sand. To complete the Abraj Al-Bait, after all, the authorities demolished the Ottoman fortress in the photo, originally completed in the 18th-century. Yet missing from this shining world of Saudi hospitality, with its spas and concierge service, was anything as frivolous as tourism.
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Kempinksi Hotel Makkah
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