Pilgrims to Buy Tickets before Obtaining Visas for the First Time in the Hajj 2016

National Office for the Hajj and Umrah took new measures for the first time to prevent a repeated scenario of the chaos that was witnessed in the last Hajj seasons, as Algerian pilgrims will be able at the beginning of this year to pull a plane ticket before getting a visa, a ticket that will be granted four months before the journey at least, in while Air Algérie will begin selling tickets later this month, with the knowledge that 8.000 pilgrims out of 28.000 will perform the rituals of this year and paid the costs at the Bank of Algeria.

In a surprising move, the National Office for Hajj and Umrah preferred this time to grant all powers to the travel agencies that are concerned with the organization of Hajj, to ensure the conduct of the pilgrims file, which number reached over 16.000 pilgrims who are registered at the travel agencies, which will stand on the process starting from the payment of the cost to a very truncated plane ticket and the visa expiration, although in the past years it carried the responsibility for the anarchy, as this the action came in order to give more flexibility to organize the process and prevent the repetition of mistakes.

In this regard, the person in charge of communication at the level of the Office of Hajj and Umrah, Mostafa Hidaoui, told Echorouk, that the new procedures for organizing the pilgrimage, and that were taken by the office this year, aim to avoid repeating the past mistakes, as the Algerian pilgrim will be able this year to get a visa and a plane ticket before the time of the flight, once he will pay the costs of the pilgrimage unlike in the past years, when the pilgrim recognizes the date of the trip one day or two before traveling to the holy sites.

“This year’s process changed, and for the first time the Algerian pilgrims, as soon as they will finish the medical examinations, they will pay the cost to the Bank of Algeria and buy tickets before obtaining a visa.”

In the same context, the Bank of Algeria begun to collect the cost of the pilgrimage, which rose this year to reach 49 million centimes, i.e. by 18% compared to last year, as the number of pilgrims who have completed this process until now, reached 8200 pilgrims.