Sami Ben Saïdane, vice-president of the Tunisian Travel Agencies (FTAV), announced this Monday, August 4, 2025 the official start of the Omra season for the year 1447 of the Hegira (2025-2026), from July 28.
Guest of the program “Expresso”, Ben Saïdan insisted on the need to respect the legal framework framing the organization of Omra trips. He notably recalled that the signing of an official contract between the pilgrim and the travel agency is compulsory, in order to guarantee the rights of both parties and to avoid the inconvenience observed during previous seasons.
A compulsory contract, but rarely applied
The FTAV vice-president said that this contractual obligation is not new. It was introduced upon liberalization of the OMRA market in Tunisia in 2013. However, its application remains very limited: in practice, more than 99 % of cases break this rule, pilgrims often passing through intermediaries whose identity or reliability they ignore. This situation generates serious organizational and logistics problems during the pilgrimage.
Go directly to approved agencies
Sami Ben Saïdan called on future pilgrims to contact approved travel agencies directly, and to check the identity of the organizer. He said that the official list of empowered agencies is available on the Tunisian Travel Agencies website, as well as on the portal of the Ministry of Tourism.
Regarding prices, Sami Ben Saidane said that the cost of the OMRA varies according to the quality of the services offered, adding that the price of plane tickets represents around 60 % of the total cost.
He also pointed out that the global price of OMRA experienced an increase of approximately 10 % compared to the previous season.
