Prices for the Islamic pilgrimage season, which began on Saturday, continue to rise this year. Tourism companies, which control around 65 percent of Hajj visas granted to Egyptians by Saudi Arabia, say the increased prices are due to excellent services provided to the pilgrims, but some fear that working- and middle-class Egyptians are being shut out of the holy rite. Egypt received 80,000 Hajj visas from the Saudi Embassy this year. Thirty-thousand were given away in the annual Hajj lottery and the remaining 50,000 went to Hajj tourists, forcing many Egyptian pilgrims to go through tourism companies. Hajj lottery packages, which is supervised by the Ministries of Interior and Tourism through a random draw of applications, costs anywhere between LE16,000 and 18,000. The price includes flight tickets, 3 or 4 star hotel accommodations near places of worship and internal bus transportation. Meanwhile, tourist Hajj packages provided by Egyptian tourism companies cost between LE40,000 to 100,000 per person depending on the package, most of which include four or five star hotels, internal air travel and better services as compared to Hajj lottery packages. Despite the many regulatory procedures to control costs adopted this year by the Egyptian Travel Agents Association (ETAA), which serves as an independent trade union with supervisory authorities over tourist companies, some private companies continue to ignore these regulations. These companies continued to increase prices under the pretext of needing to provide excellent service to pilgrims. These prices, however, serve as a burden on the Egyptian Hajj pilgrim, especially since the only other option is Hajj lottery packages, which despite significantly lower costs are only available to a limited number of Egyptians. The ETAA announced that tourist Hajj packages will drop by 25 percent from last year to reach an official cost of LE55,000 to 80,000, and that tourist companies' profit margins will be limited, ranging from 5 to 8 percent of the total cost as compared to last year's 15 percent. Nasser Turk, deputy chairman of ETAA, told Al-Masry Al-Youm that the government responded to their demands this season and cancelled fees imposed on companies operating Hajj packages, which amount to nearly LE120 million annually. Turk went on to say that many tourism companies did not comply with prices set by ETAA. Turk, however, did not reveal any intentions to penalize companies for violations. He added that these companies provide luxury Hajj packages which justifies the high prices. However, Osama Fouad, the head of Al Hanove, a first class category touristic company, says that it offered the Hajj program this year at an average price of LE100,000 because customers demand the highest level of service. "We offer an open buffet, served by five star cooks who come along with us from Egypt, and we offer our own bathrooms and the resting tents have lazy-boys for people to rest," said Fouad. ETAA is committed to applying the quota system this season, in which the visas are distributed based on how long a tour operator has been in business. Tourism experts, however, say that using the quota system is unfair. ETAA has agreed to change the quota system and implement a new system for distributing visas. The system is to be announced soon and applied next year. Experts suggest forming a high committee to supervise all Hajj concerns including visas, as such concerns are common in most Islamic countries. Turk refuses the idea, however, as it will decrease ETAA's authority over companies. Tourist companies agreed to have a pricing committee control the marginal profit and program prices. Pricing the programs under the supervision of a committee should be able to eliminate the sale of Hajj visas on the black market, which is considered one of the main drawbacks of the quota system, according to a statement released by ETAA last June. The ministry of tourism distributes Hajj visas among tourist companies for free, and in accordance with the number of years that each company had been working in the field of Islamic tourism. The companies are categorized into four classes; the highest category takes 31 visas and the lowest category takes two. The visa would cost 4000 Egyptian pounds from the Saudi Embassy if one applied directly.
