El-Shaer: A major campaign will be launched to raise citizens' awareness of the importance of the new portal
Turky: It will eliminate brokers and allow only licensed tourism companies' programs to be promoted
The Chamber of Tourism Companies, in cooperation with the Ministry of Tourism, announced the launch of the Egyptian Umrah Portal, after the Cabinet, headed by Dr. Mostafa Madbouly, approved at its meeting last Wednesday a draft decree establishing an electronic portal named the "Egyptian Umrah Portal", to be managed, supervised and monitored by the Ministry of Tourism, as part of keeping pace with technological development in Umrah procedures.
In this context, Hossam El-Shaer, chairman of the Chamber of Tourism Companies, stressed that this decision is historic and represents a technological development in this file, and that it came in coordination with the relevant authorities and the Higher Committee for Hajj and Umrah, adding that the Egyptian Umrah Portal aims to protect the money, dignity and rights of Egyptian citizens so that they obtain genuine, regulated Umrah programs, and it places the file in the hands of specialists from tourism companies.
During the press conference held today to announce the launch of the new portal, El-Shaer revealed that a major awareness campaign is planned to inform Egyptian citizens of the importance of the Egyptian Umrah Portal, with the participation of various media outlets.
For his part, Nasser Turky, member of the Higher Committee for Hajj and Umrah and board member of the Egyptian Tourism Federation, said the portal will be linked to the Saudi platform and will not allow any entity to register unless it is a company licensed by the Ministry of Tourism, which can then post its programs after obtaining a username and password. As a result, the quality of the service provided to pilgrims will be monitored, eliminating the phenomenon of brokers.
Turky stressed that the new legislation regulating Hajj and Umrah criminalizes any advertisement on social media related to organizing Umrah or Hajj programs unless it comes from a company licensed by the Ministry of Tourism, which protects the rights of Egyptian citizens from fraud.
On the other hand, he pointed out that the new portal will revive the "Umrah Plus" file, which opens the way for tourism companies to organize tour programs to visit Egypt for Umrah pilgrims from around the world after they perform the Umrah rites, especially from Asia and Latin America.
