Nadine Osman
Travel agents of Morocco and Egypt will boycott Hajj and Umrah exhibitions following a Saudi decision to impose a fee of SR2,000 (£435) on any pilgrim travelling to the kingdom for a second time.
The National Federation of Travel Agents of Morocco’s decision to boycott exhibitions in Saudi Arabia was made on October 6, four days after the fees came to affect. The Moroccan group also contacted the Saudi authorities to work on abolishing the new fees, reported the Middle East Monitor.
The Egyptian Travel Agents Association (ETAA) formed a foreign ministry sanctioned committee which will travel to Saudi Arabia and persuade the Ministry of Hajj to overturn the decision.
A number of Egyptian tourism companies’ owners called for boycotting Umrah trips, while EETA officials said they would wait until contact had been made with the Saudi authorities.
The Travel Agents Associations of Pakistan has also appealed to its country’s Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, to lobby Saudi Arabia.
Chaired by Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Naif, the Saudi’s Council of Ministers announced that the new visa fees will affect pilgrims going to Makkah and Madinah on repeat pilgrimages, while visas for first time pilgrims will remain free.
Prices for general visits will increase to SR200 (£41) for a two-month visa and SR300 (£61) for three, the Saudi Gazette reported.
Hyder PashaOctober 30, 2016
Abolish the Umara fees imposed by saudi Authorities, not accatable to Umma tul Muslameen.
ibnMuhammadApril 28, 2018
Peace be with you,
Makes sense, simply because Makkah is a very small city, and the masjid just can’t be expanded any further without destroying surrounding hotels and businesses.
The Muslims population is mashAllah so huge and growing faster; thus the number of muslims wanting to go also increasing… how can the haram masjid even cope with such capacity without annoying people or potentially causing injuries and fatalities?!
Something this article doesn’t clarify is when does the repeat umrah fee apply? i.e. can you only go once a year or once every three years?