The Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities announced that the last overland tourism Hajj trips of the 1446 AH (2025) Hajj season, which set out from Egypt to perform the Hajj pilgrimage, arrived in Saudi Arabia today. These trips comprise 8 tourist buses carrying 313 tourism pilgrims.
The ministry said this means that all overland tourism-level pilgrims, numbering 7,500, have now arrived, under the direct supervision of the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities and in implementation of the directives of Sherif Fathy, Minister of Tourism and Antiquities, to provide the utmost care and comfort to tourism pilgrims until their safe return home.
Ministry committees from the Central Administration of Tourism Companies, currently stationed at Nuweiba Port in Egypt, Aqaba Port in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and the Halat Ammar crossing on the Saudi border, continued to follow up on receiving these pilgrims upon arrival and provided them with the necessary facilities, in addition to ensuring that they received all services from tourism companies in accordance with the rules set by the ministry. The ministry's field committees there will also check on their accommodation at their places of residence in Makkah or Madinah.
For her part, Samia Samy, Assistant Minister for Tourism Companies Affairs, Head of the Egyptian Tourism Hajj Affairs Office and Head of the Higher Committee for Hajj and Umrah, stated that the total number of overland tourism Hajj trips operated this season reached 180, carrying 7,500 overland-level tourism pilgrims on modern tourist buses that underwent comprehensive technical and tourism inspections before the trips began to ensure they met safety and efficiency standards. She stressed that ministry committees deployed along the overland Hajj route are closely monitoring the movement of all trips.
Samy explained that the ministry had coordinated early on with the relevant authorities in Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia to facilitate the passage of overland pilgrims and ensure they receive the services agreed upon by the tourism companies under the approved rules. She praised this cooperation and coordination, which resulted in faster security inspections of the buses, cutting the time required to 3 hours instead of 6 hours.
The number of overland tourism Hajj visas this season reached 7,500 visas for overland tourism pilgrims, in addition to 278 supervisors affiliated with the tourism companies implementing overland Hajj programs, equivalent to 18% of the total Egyptian tourism Hajj quota of 40,672 visas. This comes as part of the ministry's keenness to diversify trip levels and offer multiple options to suit different segments.
