Saudi Gazette report MADINAH — Hotel owners and tourism officials are demanding accident insurance for Umrah visitors, who they say are prone to fire disasters and other accidents while staying at hotels in the city, Al-Hayat daily reported. They said while insurance is mandatory for car owners, it is not a requirement for Umrah pilgrims, who are more vulnerable to accidents such as hotel fires and building collapses. They believe insuring Umrah pilgrims and visitors is very important because hotel accidents usually are catastrophic and result in many casualties. A fire that engulfed a hotel in Madinah last February resulted in the death of 15 Umrah visitors and injuries to around 130 others. The accident has raised the question of responsibility to compensate the victims' families. The head of the tourism committee at Madinah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI), Abdulghani Al-Ansari, said it has become necessary to insure Umrah pilgrims, especially since hotel accidents resulting in heavy loss of lives have become common. "It is awkward that car insurance is mandatory while it is not for Umrah visitors, who represent a larger vulnerable group than the cars drivers," he said. He believes that the families of the victims of the recent hotel fire in Madinah should be compensated because there was a lack of monitoring of safety measures. He pointed out that there are more than 245 hotels in Madinah that are applying safety measures according to Civil Defense requirements, but the problem lies in the hotels preparedness to deal with disasters. Al-Ansari added that it is a joint responsibility between the government and the private sector. He noted that the problem is not equipping hotels with the required safety measures, but it lies with the continuous monitoring of these measures and training hotel staff to use these safety means. "Most hotels do not implement preventive safety measures. They should be required to hold evacuation drills once or twice a year and to train the staff on the proper use of safety means," he added. Al-Ansari believes that hotels should be linked to the Civil Defense in a similar manner banks are linked, so that any fire or other accidents are immediately reported to the control room. He said periodic inspection of safety measures should be held at least twice a year, before the Haj season and the Umrah season in addition to equipping the central area with cameras to monitor accidents. Mohammad Badr, a member of the tourism committee, concurred. He said hotels in Europe require insurance of visitors, which will contribute to compensating the victims' families and alleviating their grief. He explained that all hotels in Madinah's central area cannot operate without meeting the Civil Defense safety requirements and that many Umrah visitors lack the necessary safety awareness, as many carry with them electrical equipment that can cause fires. Marwan Hefzi, another member of the tourism committee, said the High Commission for the Development of Madinah has stipulated excellent safety measures before hotels can operate. He noted that the recent fire in a Madinah hotel was the result of negligence by the hotel owner as well as by Civil Defense personnel who neglected to carry out period inspection of safety measures within the property. Hefzi pointed out that if the hotel owner's negligence is proved, he should bear the responsibility of paying compensation to the victims' relatives. Hefzi, however, said he was against insuring Umrah visitors because it would increase costs of travel, which many of them simply cannot afford. “This will result in a drop in the number of Umrah visitors, since around 80 percent of them cannot pay the high costs of such insurance," he said.
