With an international certificate ... tourism in Egypt is recovering

With international testimony, tourism in Egypt is recovering and the number of tourists will exceed 15 million in 2020

Dr. Saeed Al-Batouti, Economic Adviser to the World Tourism Organization, member of the United Nations Economic Committee for Europe and the Board of Directors of the German Tourism Federation: “The figures issued by the organization confirm the recovery of tourism in Egypt, where the number of tourists during the year 2019 reached nearly 13 million tourists.” In an interview with the Middle East News Agency on Tuesday, Al-Batouti said that it is expected that the tourism indicators in Egypt during the current year will exceed the record levels achieved in 2010, during which the number of tourists reached about 14.7 million, stressing that with continued stability alongside the policy package The Egyptian Current, will exceed the number of tourists to Egypt's 15-million barrier tourists.

He noted that this recovery in the tourism sector comes as a natural result of the strong support of the Egyptian political leadership for this important sector in the world, as the tourism industry is the third largest industry and an export category in the world after fuel and chemicals, as international tourism has achieved revenues amounting to 1.7 trillion USD in the year 2018, while the fuel industry made $ 2.4 trillion, and chemicals made $ 2.2 trillion.

He stressed the importance of not relying on tourists from one country, and working to attract tourists from different countries, pointing out that countries such as Spain and Italy are among the target markets for Egyptian tourism during the coming period, as the number of Italian tourists to Egypt during 2018 reached 422 thousand Italians, while The number of Spanish tourists reached 66 thousand.

He pointed out that the recent indicators of the World Tourism Organization revealed a great surprise, namely that the Chinese tourist has the highest spending rate in the world, spending $ 277 billion on tourism in 2018, noting that there are 234 thousand Chinese tourists who visited Egypt in 2018, and that it must Working to target this tourist, calling for opening new tourist markets in Egypt, especially with the availability of all the elements of tourist attraction in it, stressing the importance of focusing on religious tourism, such as reviving the path of the Holy Family’s journey, as well as medical tourism, as they will have huge returns in the long run Such as cultural and beach tourism.

He noted that advertisements and advertising and promotional campaigns are not sufficient alone to attract tourists, explaining that the key to the tourist movement of any country is the innovative marketing thought of tourism programs, and interaction with tour operators and aviation offices, in addition to direct meetings.

As for the impact of the opening of a number of important archaeological projects on tourism, such as the Grand Egyptian Museum, he said, "The whole world, especially the German people, is awaiting the opening of Egypt's national project, as it is a people who loves the ancient Egyptian civilization," noting that the German market recorded the highest growth rate in tourism International in Egypt in 2019, when the number of German tourists exceeded 2.5 million Germans, compared to one million and 707 thousand tourists in 2018

.

He pointed out that Egypt's hosting of important youth forums and international conferences contributed to changing the cultural image of Egypt abroad, and is one of the attractions of visiting Egypt, especially since the conference tourism market represents the most important pillars of tourism promotion in the world, in light of the changes taking place in the tourism industry globally, and the multiplicity Tourist styles and creating other modern styles.

He said that attention should be paid to the pattern of urban tourism, and cultural tourism that has a very effective return on the Egyptian economy and the local population, which brings direct economic benefit to them, given that it is a high-spending pattern, and it must be promoted well, while developing the services provided for this pattern in this The regions, expressing his hope to develop these areas and raise the level of services in them.

He praised the decision to merge the ministries of tourism and antiquities into one ministry, given the two sectors' connection to each other, which will contribute to solving many obstacles facing tourists and investors, especially with the opening of a number of major archaeological projects, particularly the Great Egyptian Museum.

He stressed the importance of the initiative of the Central Bank to support the tourism sector, in the recovery of the tourist movement in most tourist cities in general and Sharm El-Sheikh in particular, and to drop the marginalized benefits from the defaulters from the sector before 2011, which is followed in a number of countries to encourage investors.

Al-Batouti supported the country's start to involve the private sector in new archaeological projects, explaining that this, in turn, is reflected in increasing the volume of incoming tourism traffic, especially as this strategy is applied in the developed world, praising at the same time the establishment of the first archeology museum in Hurghada in cooperation with the private sector And the selection of a major company to manage and operate the services of the Grand Egyptian Museum, and that the company (Orascom Investment) obtain the right to operate and provide visitors services in the Pyramids Plateau area.

Regarding the hotel reservation crisis (online), and the demands of tourism companies to stop it, Al-Batouti said: "There is no country in the world that can prevent hotel reservations" online ", especially with the development of countries in the world to digital technology," noting that among the solutions is imposing taxes On reservation, "Online", which is applied in many countries, including France, which is the first in that type of reservations, after the number of tourists coming to it reached about 93 million in 2018.