A visitor looks for information about umrah travels at a recent exhibition in Jakarta. (JP/Ricky Yudhistira)

More flexible than the haj ritual, umrah enables pilgrims to visit more places during one trip.

Umrah has become a lucrative business over the past few years. According to the Religious Affairs Ministry'€™s directorate general for haj and umrah, Indonesia recorded around 500,000 people visiting Mecca for umrah in 2012. It was quite a leap compared to about 150,000 in 2009.

Ijun from AMI Tour, a travel agency, said the number of pilgrims peaked in February and March as the months generally had the most favorable weather of the year.

'€œOn average, we send about 1,500 pilgrims for minor pilgrimages per year. The trip usually starts in January until the start of Ramadhan,'€ Ijun told The Jakarta Post.

Ijun'€™s office offers various umrah packages, starting from around US$1,800 to $2,600 per person. Each package'€™s time period also varies from nine to 15 days.

'€œMost of our clients prefer traveling between February and March as the weather is comfortable and for us, the visa application process is more certain from the Saudi Arabia Embassy when compared to trips in January, which is the opening of the umrah season,'€ said Ijun, adding that January'€™s weather was too cold for most Indonesians.

Umrah is a religious trip that can be performed throughout the year. It isn'€™t compulsory but is highly
recommended and it can be done once or more.

Haj, the fifth pillar of Islam, is mandatory for Muslims as long as he or she is physically and financially able to do so. During haj, a pilgrim can also conduct umrah.

Umrah is essentially a series of Islamic rituals that include ihram (a state of purity and holiness), tawaf (circumambulating the Kaaba seven times), sa'€™i (a ritual walk from the Al-Safa and Al-Marwah mountains) and tahallul (hair cutting to symbolize the end of ihram). The rituals symbolize the life of Prophet Ibrahim, or Abraham, and his wife, Hajar, as well as solidarity among Muslims in the world.

AMI Tour offers two types of regular umrah '€” each for nine days, which will begin on Dec. 24 and Jan. 1, 2014, respectively.

Each trip usually covers umrah rituals in Mecca and visits to other sacred sites like Jabal Tsur, Arafah, Jabal Rahmah and Jabal Nur Mountain.

Besides some fixed and regular arrangements, Ijun said his office was open for custom arrangements in terms of minor pilgrimages, or more popular arrangements such as umrah by request.

'€œWe can also arrange special packages, at least for a seven-day trip,'€ he said, adding that such arrangements would cost at least $2,000 per person.

Patuna Tours and Travel said it could provide clients with a five-day trip for umrah, or even a three-day tour.

'€œEverything is possible. For the five-day trip, a client can have a day in Medina and two days in Mecca, while the remaining days are for traveling,'€ said Patuna'€™s president director Syam Resfiadi. '€œAs for the three-day trip, a client can have one day each for Medina and Mecca. We can arrange for a first-class ticket as well as a limousine ride for each customized package.'€

For the five-day trip, the agency has set a price of between $3,500 and $4,000. Meanwhile, for the three-day tour, it costs around $3,100 '€” mainly depending on which type of hotel a client prefers.

Syam, however, said umrah by request was less favorable.

Evita Megawati Marpaung of HTK Tour said the increasing number of umrah requests mostly came from the middle-aged who could not wait for too long for haj.

For safety reasons, the Saudi Arabian government has applied a quota for each country in sending pilgrims. Indonesia used to have a quota of 211,000 people a year. However, due to a major renovation in Masjid Al-Haram in Mecca, the Saudi government has reduced the quota to 168,000 starting from this year.

'€œNobody knows how long he or she will stay. Most middle-aged clients choose umrah to just at least visit Mecca,'€ she said.

HTK Tour values each of its umrah packages from $2,100 to $3,850.

As a comparison, the cost of a regular haj package in 2013 is around $5,350, while a premium package costs at least $8,000.

Indonesian Association of Haj and Umrah Private Operators (Himpuh) secretary-general Muharram Ahmad said the quota for umrah had also been reduced to about 50 percent this year, despite the high demand.

The Religious Affairs Ministry directorate general for haj and umrah reportedly predicted a surge of up to one million umrah pilgrims in 2013.

'€œDue to the cut, we will probably record only half of the prediction. As of early December, we have about 400,000 pilgrims for umrah,'€ explained Muharram.

For arranging umrah trips, Muharram suggested pilgrim candidates use licensed travel agents.

'€œGoing on umrah without arranging with licensed operators may lead to people being vulnerable to fraud,'€ he added, referring to some 250 licensed haj and umrah operators.

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