Tourism sector in Egypt still strong

The Great Temple of Ramses II in Abu Simbel Cairo – Akram Ali Egyptian Tourism Minister Hisham Zaazou, stated that the infrastructure of the tourism sector in Egypt was still strong and has not yet witnessed any vandalism in hotels, airports or tourist sites. According to Zaazou, the tourism sector has human resources trained at the highest level to guarantee an elevated tourist service. This assures that the sector is able to resume work immediately at a full capacity. He added that Egypt was selected and ranked 18th within the world’s 50th best destinations, while it came at the top level among Arab and African countries. The Tourism Minister pointed out that although the sector saw some regression after the revolution, in the few last weeks, there were promising signs of high tourism return rates just like in 2010. “In the upcoming years we are targeting 30 million tourists and an investment of $ 30bn in 2020,” Zaazou said. Zaazou clarified in a statement during a meeting with the Kuwaiti ministerial committee at the cabinet headquarters that the Ministry of Tourism succeeded during the last period to solve the problems of Kuwaiti investors in the Egyptian tourism sector. He pointed out  the government’s keenness on supporting the tourism sector, a main pillar of the Egyptian economy. The sector had attracted $12.5bn and 14.7 million tourists to Egypt in 2010, in addition to investments estimated at around EGP 200bn ($35bn). Concerning projects where Kuwaiti investors can contribute, the Tourism Minister said that the ministry has prepared a number of projects to develop the tourism sector including a project to increase the number of airplanes in the Air Cairo Company that owns four modern planes, and has a great opportunity to increase the number of airplanes to face the expected influx in tourism flow into Egypt. He added that Egypt has 52 tourist spots on the Red Sea and South Sinai specialised in entertainment tourism, at a capacity of 200,000 hotel rooms out of a total of 250,000 hotel rooms in Egypt. He explained that most of these spots lack small shopping centres and that entertainment places outside the hotels is what gives it a chance to establish hundreds of restaurants, small cafes, and small touristic facilities. It is a way to create the city atmosphere which the tourists miss out on in the Red Sea and in South Sinai.