By Akram Medhat
Dozens of Egyptian tour companies have called on Minister of Tourism Yehia Rashed to open the new 1439 AH/2018 Umrah season, which has been delayed by more than a month since the season actually began and Umrah trips started operating in Saudi Arabia.
At a meeting at the headquarters of the Chamber of Tourism Companies in Cairo, attended by about 100 companies representing companies in the various governorates, they stressed that there is no reason for the delay in the regulations; rather, the working mechanism must be settled in light of the amendments and decisions recently announced by Saudi Arabia.
Ali El-Manasterly, head of the Chamber of Tourism Companies in Alexandria, Basel El-Sisi, former head of the religious tourism committee, and Yousry El-Saudi, a member of the chamber's general assembly, were mandated to meet the Minister of Tourism and present the companies' demand that a date be set for the start of the Umrah season, like the other markets that have already started operating trips.
For his part, Ali El-Manasterly told Travel Yalla News that the regulations are not an obstacle to operating the season, but announcing the opening is what matters most and what hundreds of companies and hundreds of thousands of Egyptian pilgrims are waiting for, and that tour companies' meetings will continue until they meet the Minister of Tourism and obtain a timetable for the procedures to launch the Umrah season, noting that the companies will press decision-makers to save the situation.
On the other hand, El-Manasterly said that the eye-scan procedure for Umrah pilgrims is difficult to apply given that Tasheel, the company responsible for issuing visas for Saudi Arabia, is not ready for this procedure, especially as its capabilities are not suited to handling about one million Egyptian pilgrims through a very limited number of offices.
He added that he had invited representatives of the Saudi consulate in Alexandria and of Tasheel to meet them at the chamber's headquarters, to review the full picture and the seriousness of the situation if this procedure is applied, which will anger those wishing to perform Umrah, in addition to thousands crowding at the company's offices to have their fingerprints taken, which will cause major problems.
