Muslims return to Saudi Arabia this week to perform the annual Hajj pilgrimage after a two-year hiatus and it's a chance for the economy of Saudi Arabia's holy cities to get a jump start.
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Abu Dhabi, UAE Oil has added trillions of dollars to Saudi Arabia's coffers over the decades, but it's a resource that will someday run out or lose value as the world turns to alternative energy. Despite current high oil prices, the kingdom knows this, and it has embarked on an ambitious project to diversify its sources of revenue for a post-oil future. One of those sources is the pilgrimage, an eternal monopoly that has a potential market of almost two billion Muslims. Soon after King Salman bin Abdulaziz took power in 2015, Saudi Arabia launched a $21 billion project to expand the Grand Mosque in Mecca to accommodate 300,000 additional worshippers.
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