On top of that, they come cheap, like many people from Egypt did. If I understand this correctly, you can buy a kind of “Hadjj package” with hotel room, access to AC’ed facilities during the day, food and - most important - drink, and even medical supervision (or at least easy access to medical services). But of course you have to pay for this.
So it is cheaper just to get a tourist visum and do everything outside those guard rails. With the results that this years Hadjj produced. A bunch of Egyptian travel agencies sold the cheaper variant, and then left their customers without any real support inside Saudi Arabia.
On top of that, they come cheap, like many people from Egypt did. If I understand this correctly, you can buy a kind of “Hadjj package” with hotel room, access to AC’ed facilities during the day, food and - most important - drink, and even medical supervision (or at least easy access to medical services). But of course you have to pay for this.
So it is cheaper just to get a tourist visum and do everything outside those guard rails. With the results that this years Hadjj produced. A bunch of Egyptian travel agencies sold the cheaper variant, and then left their customers without any real support inside Saudi Arabia.