(AFP Photo)
Minister of Tourism Hisham Zaazou has instructed travel agencies to take all necessary guarantees to ensure the comfort of pilgrims during the Umrah season, advising them to take care not to repeat any of the previous year’s mistakes.
Zaazou also stressed the importance of sticking to the given times of travel and return for the pilgrims so as to prevent the overcrowding of the airports, especially with the increased demand this year. Mostafa Abdel Latif, the head of the travel agents sector at the ministry, said that the sector has already had a meeting with representatives of the religious tourism committee, EgyptAir and Saudi Airlines. The meeting was concerned with the organisation of Umrah flights and making sure there were no problems or issues.
Abdel Latif stressed the importance of EgyptAir providing the ministry with its complete cancellation policy and the estimated capacity of flights for the entire season, so that companies can decide on the appropriate number of pilgrims for their Umrah packages. The information would also allow them to set the prices and give automatic notice in case of any cancellation.
Abdel Latif also requested that the companies adhere to EgyptAir’s schedule and the length of the packages approved by the ministry, which is at most 15 days, and the latest return date for pilgrims is 11 August 2014.
He added that companies must en sure that there are confirmed reservations for their pilgrims before accepting payment for packages. Any company that will not adhere to this set of rules, will be penalised and might be subject to legal action, or the cancelation of company’s licence.
Translated from Al-Borsa Newspaper.
