By Akram Medhat
Web Link has launched the first website specializing in Umrah and Hajj, under the name "Umrah Holidays", which aims to keep pace with the global development of online marketing and sales and is dedicated to tourism companies.
The website offers competitive prices covering a variety of services, including hotel rooms, transfers, tourist attractions, flight tickets and online visas where possible.
Egyptian tourism companies can market and sell their products, including programs, hotel rooms, empty seats on flights or transport services, through the website, as well as communicate with companies and hotels around the world through their offers too.
In this context, Ali Sedky, CEO of "Umrah Holidays", said that work on the project took a full year to arrive at the best technology to compete globally, explaining that the website primarily targets the Hajj and Umrah business and includes 80% of Saudi hotels, as well as about 250,000 hotels around the world.
Sedky stressed, during the press conference held to launch it yesterday evening, that the website does not compete with tourism companies but rather makes it easier for them to market themselves, reach travel agents and hotels around the world, and sell their tourism products and services.
He explained that the website targets tourism companies, not the public, so an ordinary person who opens the link will not see any information about offers or anything else, as it requires a username and password, which are available only to contracted companies or hotels, because the aim is partnership, not competition.
He added that it includes not only the products of tourism companies but also hotels, tourist attractions, transfers, flight tickets and visas when available, and it is therefore marketed abroad and not only inside Egypt, to give Egyptian companies the opportunity to open up areas of joint work with travel agents around the world.
He pointed to the long experience in online bookings, which have become a global trend, of the tourism companies contributing to the launch of the website. For this reason, the website was designed and specialized teams were chosen to update price data continuously, around the clock, to serve customers around the world.
He said that contact is being made with global booking websites for mutual benefit, especially since "Umrah Holidays" is the first website specializing in this business.
He noted that the website will take part with a large pavilion in the Arab Tourism and Umrah Forum, scheduled to open today, Sunday, in Cairo.
Keep Pace or Drop Out of the Competition
For his part, Nasser Turky, adviser to Web Link and one of the founders of "Umrah Holidays", stressed that Egyptian tourism companies are the most experienced in the world in organizing Hajj and Umrah, but that they must keep pace with the shift to electronic systems, especially after the mechanisms and regulations for the Umrah season recently announced by Saudi Arabia.
He pointed to Saudi Arabia's plan for the tourism sector after the number of its companies increased to 1,200, which aims to acquire entities around the world to open up various markets, and said that this must therefore be prepared for, otherwise Egyptian companies will find no room to compete.
Turky added that Saudi Arabia received about 6.8 million Umrah pilgrims last season, and Egypt ranked sixth on the list of the main countries sending Umrah pilgrims, after ranking second in previous seasons, as a result of the delay in opening the Umrah season in Egypt, which limited it to only 3 months. He noted that the Kingdom aims to attract 20 million Umrah pilgrims by 2030, which magnifies the importance of the Umrah Holidays website.
Turky revealed to "Travel Yalla News" that the "Umrah Holidays" website will play a major role in Saudi Arabia, as it targets Saudi agents and the Saudi tourism market, noting that their number is expected to reach 1,000 agents, but those who do not have a product will not be able to compete, so there must be a strategic partnership with all parties of the tourism system worldwide.
Turky said that tours of Egyptian governorates are planned to introduce the website and its services to tourism companies and hotels, and to stress that the world is seeking to abolish paper procedures while we still insist on them, which may take us out of the competition, especially as the website is global and does not target the Egyptian market only. It will therefore be a support for tourism companies if the opening of the Umrah season is delayed.
