Between 30 000 and 40 000 South Africans have applied for accreditation as Hajj pilgrims, and about seven travel agencies applied for accreditation to facilitate Hajj travel. However, a severely limited national pilgrim quota and a steep minimum-pilgrim-per-operator requirement continues to shrink the South African Hajj industry.
Since April 2024, South Africa’s Hajj pilgrim quota, assigned by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Hajj and Umrah, fell by 1 000, to only 2 500 pilgrims. Sedick Steenkamp, Director of Al Safir Tourism and Chairman of the South African Muslim Travel Operators Association, says the pilgrim quota is actually even lower, as approximately 50 spaces are saved for travel operators.
Adding to the challenge, in late August 2024, the Ministry announced that Hajj travel operators must service a minimum of 500 pilgrims to receive accreditation.
High demand and low supply
“The Hajj pilgrim waiting list is long because our official quota is only 2 500 pilgrims, and about 30 000 to 40 000 people applied to go,” explains Steenkamp.
By January 10, the South African Hajj and Umrah Council (SAHUC) announced that the South African pilgrim quota had been filled, only three months after applications had opened.
“The quota filled fairly quickly because of the limited number of spaces available. We can only hope that in future that this quota is increased,” says Steenkamp.
Lost potential
In the past, there were enough South African Hajj pilgrims to require services from almost 20 accredited operators, says Steenkamp.
“However, given that the quota has remained low, and the minimum number of pilgrims per operator has increased to 500, only three operators have been Hajj-accredited for Hajj 2025.”
Steenkamp explains that while about seven travel operators applied for and received accreditation, many had to drop out because they did not meet the minimum quota of 500 pilgrims.
“This has been terrible from the business point of view and put many agencies out of business. It has been a challenge for us and we have to think about how to move forward.”
He warns that if the national pilgrim quota is not increased and the pilgrim-per-operator requirement is not dropped, travel agencies that previously relied on facilitating pilgrim travel will be forced to close or will have to “innovate to survive”.
While SAHUC has previously put forward requests for a national pilgrim quota concession, Steenkamp says SAHUC is not a government entity, and that an increase to the South African pilgrim quota will require direct government intervention.
