Working Bayram

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   On the 7th of November Muslim countries finished celebrating Id Al-Phitr (the feast holiday) which is known in Russia as ‘Ramazan-Bayram’. This is one of the largest holidays of Islam which takes place right after the end of post in Ramadan month. As a rule, a 3-day Id al-Phitr in the UAE and Egypt is an emotional experience for tour operators as it is connected with non-working days of virtually all establishments. As a result, there are often problems associated with visas in the UAE, hotels and accepting companies in both countries.
   ‘We managed to escape the difficulties as we processed visas to the UAE in advance, having received the information about all holidays and the work of all services’, says Dmitry Artyunov, general director of ‘Art-tour’ company to a BANKO correspondent.
   As BANKO discovered, some operators processes urgent visas for clients who applied during Id Al-Phitr period and wanted to leave right after it had finished. Such a document is processed in 1 day (therefore, there was a possibility to process it on the 7th of November) but it is more expensive - $75, while a normal document costs $40, and it is processed during 3-5 working days.
   As for hotels and accepting companies, for example, according to Anton Abramov, director of Turkey and Egypt of ‘Capital tour’ company, his foreign partners still had at least 50% of staff still working. There was a similar situation in the UAE where there were managers working a special regime.
   In general, according to the market players, each large company sent about 500 tourists to Egypt and Emirates during the holiday-period in spite of the problem with the room fund, especially characteristic for UAE hotels and becoming more acute during Bairam.