Demand For Umrah Packages Increasing
By Sobrina Rosli

Bandar Seri Begawan - Travel agencies are seeing a surge in the number of Bruneians availing themselves of the Umrah packages over the past three to four years.

There has been a noticeable surge in the demand for Umrah packages among Bruneians, a trend that speaks of their inclination towards travel whilst performing religious obligations, travel agents said.

"There is a definite trend towards Umrah packages in the last three to four years, currently there is a total of between 3,000 to 4,000 Bruneians who go off on Umrah yearly - a big jump from numbers of 2,000 or less Umrah pilgrims in the past," said Ismail Sulaiman, acting head of Haj and Umrah packages at Darussalam Holdings travel agency.

Darussalam Holdings has already received about 950 registered Umrah package buyers for the school holiday in March this year, he said, adding that more are on the waiting list.

"We also intend to put an end to accepting those for the waiting list as we still have to wait for regulatory instructions regarding visas via a new system under the Saudi Arabia government for Umrah pilgrims, he added.

Darussalam Holdings who has been offering Muslim pilgrimage packages since 1998. A package, one that, allows comfort whilst performing religious tasks, is currently valued at around $2,500.

"We (house) our clients in four-star hotels to ensure their comfort alongside them performing religious obligation, making certain of functioning facilities," he added.

Jamal Abdul Nafsir, manager of Humairah travel agency, said the demand for Umrah packages has always been good, although this year the response has been "tremendous".

"The reason for the surge to me is very simple. Bruneians moving towards religion, we as Muslims coming to us, helping them is valuable as well as Brunei being an Islamic country," he said.

Rafi Nooruddin, general manager of HTH travel agency, said the response has been "very good, more than expected".

"The change in Bruneian's preferance of destinations is an Islamic issue; they would rather be spending on bringing their families to a place of religion," he said, adding that the rise has been in the last two to three years. -- Courtesy of The Brunei Times

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