Egypt: The Minister of Tourism and Archaeology, Ahmed Issa, has recently participated as a keynote speaker on the agenda of the Egyptian Canadian Business Council and the Egyptian Business Council for International Cooperation. The event was held under the theme of “The future of tourism in Egypt, opportunities and challenges”.
As per the reports, Amr Al-Qadi, the executive president of the Egyptian General Authority for Tourism Activation, and Yamona Al-Bahar, Assistant Minister for Technical Affairs, attended the attendance.
The symposium started with a promotional film on ancient Egyptian civilization, released last September as part of the 200th anniversary of deconstructing ancient Egyptian writing codes and the creation of Egyptian science.
Minister Ahmed Issa prepared his speech, expressing his happiness to be invited to participate in this seminar, especially that it is a good opportunity to review the most significant indicators of tourism movement in Egypt during the last six months, noting that the number of tourists arriving Egypt is tracked on a weekly and monthly basis.
The Minister spoke about the importance of the tourism industry to countries’ economies, especially as one of the most important sources of foreign currency, and its significant impact on many other industries.
During the seminar, Ahmed Issa made a presentation, reviewing the most important developments of the tourism industry in Egypt and what has been achieved during the past period of the implementation of the National Strategic Centres for the Development of Tourism in Egypt, noting that the difference between a dream and a goal is the existence of a practical plan based on reality.
In his remarks, Tourism Minister also said that during the first six months of the current year, the movement, for the first time in the history of tourism in Egypt, has seen growth in the number of tourists exceeding 7 million tourists.
The tourism minister also said there is an increase in the number of tourist nights, and the sources of tourist markets exported to this movement in a distinctive composition For the first time without much concentration of one nationality on the other.
It is clear that several tourist markets have seen a boom in tourist arrivals during the first half of this year, targeting 15 million tourists this year.
As he pointed out that by comparing the figures that Egypt achieved in the tourism industry with the global tourism indices, tourism in Egypt increased by 11% of what the world achieved during the first quarter of the current year compared to the same period of 2019, which is the peak year for the tourism industry in the world, indicating that Egypt’sEgypt’s market share of tourism is increasing.
The Minister sought to congratulate the private sector on these results as he has an important and leading role in achieving them, noting that the Ministry’sMinistry’s current target is to achieve rapid growth of 25%-30% annually led by the private sector.
The growth is aimed to be within the framework of effective regulation and governance, which contributes to the preservation of the interests of the visitor, the tourist, and he receives what he deserves from an exceptional tourist experience.
The Minister clarified that one of the most important criteria for success and measuring the ministry’s performance and efficiency is the private sector’s confidence towards the future of Egypt’sEgypt’s tourism industry.
He referred to some reports that provided positive indicators and vision regarding this, including the report issued by the Information Centre and supporting the Cabinet’sCabinet’s decision on the “General Index of Barometer” and Tourism”.
It was a survey conducted by an economic newspaper last December to measure confidence in different industries in the Egyptian economy, where the confidence index in the tourism industry rose by 11% according to this survey, said the Minister.
The tourism products that Egypt has a great competitive advantage that is currently focused mainly on the product of cultural tourism, beach and entertainment tourism, family tourism, adventure tourism and tourists looking for integrated tourism experience multiple experiences and tourist styles.
Ahmed Issa also talked about the most prominent strategic hubs currently being worked on, which came to improve the offer side of the Egyptian tourist destination, which is to enable the Egyptian tourist destination to a larger scale and multiply the number of air seats coming to Egypt in cooperation with the Ministry of Civil Aviation to drive more tourism movement to Egypt.
The Minister of Tourism also pointed out the necessity of establishing a Master Plan for tourist areas to make it available to the investor to achieve the optimal exploitation of those areas in cooperation with the Ministry of Housing, Facilities and Urban Communities and to support them with various types of service and entertainment activities.
