Over the years, the kingdom has spent billions of dollars on making one of the world's biggest religious gatherings more secure.
Haj, a once-in-a-lifetime duty for every able-bodied Muslim who can afford it, is a major source of income for the government from worshippers' lodging, transport, fees and gifts.
An economic reform plan of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman aims to increase umrah and haj capacity to 30 million pilgrims annually and to generate 50 billion riyals ($13.32 billion) of revenues by 2030.
About 19 million also took part annually in the umrah, another form of pilgrimage to Mecca which - unlike the haj - can be carried out at any time of the year, before the pandemic.
