The Saudi authorities’ denial of visas for Umrah — the pilgrimage to Mecca that can take place throughout the year — to more than 50,000 Egyptians this year made the headlines in Egypt over the past two weeks.

The Saudi Ministry of Hajj has stopped the online application procedure of Umrah visas for Egyptians without giving prior notice, causing a crisis between travel agencies and thousands of Umrah pilgrims on the one hand, and between the travel agencies and the government on the other. The government was asked to take a stance since this crisis has been ongoing for two consecutive years: 75,000 Egyptians were unable to perform Umrah pilgrimage last year.

According to the estimation of the economic committee of the Egyptian Chamber of Tourism Establishments (CTE), “Travel agencies' losses amounted to 150 million Egyptian pounds ($20.9 million) due to the crisis.”

Although the Egyptian government announced that the crisis was about to be solved following the visit of Egypt’s Minister of Tourism Hisham Zazou to Saudi Arabia to meet with officials in the Ministry of Hajj, the CTE leveled a fierce media attack against the ministry. The CTE affirmed that “the crisis is still ongoing, and the government was only able to get 4,000 visas out of 50,000 (applications) through its intensive communications with Saudi officials. Therefore, it has undermined the rights of Umrah pilgrims. This was the result of the lack of coordination between the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and the Saudi Ministry of Hajj.”