El-Sisi: Umrah visa quotas to be settled after appeals are reviewed, with the surplus redistributed among the other companies organizing programs
Ibrahim: A penalty system is being prepared, with the chamber represented in investigations before decisions are issued
By Akram Medhat
Travel Yalla News has learned that the number of tourism companies found in violation during the last Hajj and Umrah season of 1439 AH, against which ministerial decisions imposing penalties were issued, has reached 176, starting from last December 13. The penalties were graded according to the size of the violation, in line with the law and the regulating rules, ranging from a partial suspension of religious tourism activity for a period of one month up to a year, to the cancellation of some tourism companies' branches, and up to the revocation of the company's license.
The number of tourism companies that authenticated their contracts for the current 1440 AH Umrah season reached 1,753. If the Umrah visas capped by the Egyptian government at 500,000 are divided among them, each company's share would be 285 visas. The total quota is split into 400,000 visas during the Prophet's Birthday, Rajab and Sha'ban seasons, with a share of 228 visas per company, and 100,000 in the month of Ramadan, with a share of 57 visas.
In this context, Basel El-Sisi, Vice Chairman of the Chamber of Tourism Companies, explained that each company's visa share was estimated on a preliminary basis, while the actual figure will be known once the fate of the penalties imposed on tourism companies is decided, after the period for rectifying their status and submitting appeals ends, when the surplus will be redistributed among the other companies organizing Umrah programs.
El-Sisi added that companies on which penalties were imposed have been allowed to carry out the programs they had contracted before the decisions were issued and for which they had obtained the electronic visa approvals from the Saudi agent.
For his part, Ahmed Ibrahim, head of the Religious Tourism Committee at the Chamber of Tourism Companies, stressed that a deterrent and transparent system for punishing violating companies is being prepared, under which the chamber's technical side would be represented before penalty decisions are issued, following investigations into complaints and violations. He added that this proposal is scheduled to be presented to the Minister of Tourism.
It is worth noting that the decisions issued gave all tourism companies a 15-day grace period to rectify their status from their date of issue, set as December 13, before the penalties take effect. Companies are also entitled to file an appeal with the Ministry of Tourism within 60 days of the date the ministerial decision was issued.
