In spite of an increase in the MERS virus
cases in Saudi Arabia, the Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents
(MATTA) has demanded from their Prime Minister to convince the Saudi government
in to increase the quota of Umrah visas for Malaysian citizens, reports The
Star. Addressing a press meeting, the president of MATTA, HamzahRahmat said
that they had recently submitted about 26,000 Umrah applications to Saudi
Arabia, but less than 10 percent of them got approved. Hamzah also revealed
that when quota system was introduced in Malaysia during last year it was only
limited to two months Shaaban and Ramadan.
However, during this year the restriction
started a month earlier in Rejab that comes before Shaaban and Ramadan without
any prior notice from the Saudi government, said Hamzah. As a result, all the
agents who had even submitted online applications long before the deadline
failed to get their visas approved by Saudi Arabia, said the MATTA president.
He added that this problem could be solved only if Malaysian government
intervene in this matter.
That’s not all early restriction has also
effected the local Umrah travel agents, as they had already received full
payments for lodging and flights. In fact, they had exchanged it different
people involve in the process including ground operators in the Kingdom.Ha,azah
said that of pilgrims themselves postpones their plan to do Umrah it will not
hurt travel agents, but in case of cancellation or rescheduling agents have to
bear great loss.
Keeping this point in mind, Hamzah
requested the airlines in aid of MATTA members that they should consider
waiving cancellation charges and make full refunds to MATTA members. Now it
remains to be seen whether Malaysian government will aid travel agents to
resolve this problem. However, British Umrah pilgrims will not have to face any
of these problems, as no quota system has been introduced for the country.
Thus, if you are planning to perform Umrah
during this year then, visit authorized Haj and Umrah travel agent, British Haj
Travel Ltd. today and acquire the best services.
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