Virtual reality haj slowly growing in popularity in largely untapped Islamic app market

Photo for illustrative purposes only. A woman wearing virtual reality simulator. Photo: Mohd Alif Md Aliudin/EyeEm

2.35 million pilgrims performed the haj last year, 75 percent of whom arrived in Saudi Arabia from 168 countries. Most Muslims perform the obligatory haj only once in their lifetime and the combination of rituals in a foreign land and in close proximity to more than 2 million other pilgrims can make the journey overwhelming.

Eager to improve pilgrims’ experience, Saudi authorities recently held a haj hackathon to find tech solutions. But even before that big push, in which 2 million Saudi riyals ($533,333) were awarded in prizes, a handful of app developers has for a few years been capitalising on virtual reality (VR) technology to help prepare first-time pilgrims and to show non-Muslims what it’s like to go on the pilgrimage.

“We believe it’s a powerful tool that acts as a guide for people doing pilgrimage for the first time. We also want to shatter stereotypes of how Muslims are portrayed in the media,” Wael Ramadan, chief technical officer at Cairo-based Vhorus, the company behind Experience Makkah and the first Middle Eastern developer to offer an app on Oculus VR store, told Salaam Gateway.