JEDDAH, 1 November 2007 -- The Islamic Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) announced at the conclusion of the First Tourism Forum of Islamic Countries here yesterday the establishment of the Islamic Tourism Company for promoting tourism in member states of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC).

The founding members include tourism companies from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Iran, Sudan, Pakistan and Azerbaijan with an initial capital of $100 million and will be open to further investments by other participants. The ICCI will follow up the establishment of the company.

The two-day forum began Tuesday with sessions on tourism in Islamic countries and the challenges and barriers they face, including infrastructure, tourism packages, marketing and visa regulations. The opening session was held under the auspices of Interior Minister Prince Naif, who is the chairman of board of directors of the Supreme Commission for Tourism (SCT), which organized the forum with the Council of Saudi Chambers and ICCI.

Yesterday the forum focused on promotional programs of inter-tourism between Islamic countries and some of the successful experiences in tourism activation and promotion with presentations from Iran, Tunisia and Turkey.

The final session was on tourism in Saudi Arabia. It included a paper by Abdul Aziz Al-Rasheed from SCT on a proposed vision for cooperation in tourism between Islamic countries in which he suggested establishing a joint database on tourism in Islamic countries, perhaps by the ICCI, and establishing an Islamic tourism organization under the ICCI. Deputy Minister of Haj Eissa Rawas talked about the new regulations for Haj and Umrah.

After the final session, a discussion was held on complications of getting visas to enter Saudi Arabia, especially for women. ICCI officials said that over 150 participants were unable to attend because they had not been issued visas. This was evident from the forum's poor attendance.

When Arab News asked Al-Rasheed about what the SCT was doing regarding simplifying the visa procedures, he said the procedure for Umrah visa was simple and the requirements were known.

As for delays in issuing visas for attending conferences, he laid the blame on the organizers for not submitting the requests early enough -- which in this case the ICCI officials deny. However, he added that the SCT is currently coordinating with the concerned government agencies to simplify the visa process.

A chamber official told Arab News that the problem is not necessarily with the Foreign Ministry but often with individuals trying to take advantage of business or conference trips by applying for visas for their entire family to perform Umrah.

© Arab News 2007