Zaazou announced a range of incentives to promote Arab tourism
Dubai, 05 May 2013: During a press conference held on the sidelines of the Arabian Travel Market (ATM), HE Hisham Zaazou, Minister of Tourism of Egypt, announced a range of incentives and offers that will be provided by the Egyptian tourism sector to Arab families during the upcoming summer season, the holy month of Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr.
The press conference was held at Raffles Dubai in line with the participation of the Ministry of Tourism-Egypt and Egyptian Tourist Authority (ETA) in the ATM at the Egyptian Wing number NA1110. The event will be held over a period of four days from 06 to 09 May, 2013.
HE also highlighted the special offers provided by various hotels for Arab families and children in line with the plan of the Ministry of Tourism and the tourism business sector to support revenues provided to Egypt from Arab countries, especially from the United Arab Emirates.
Despite Egypt's current challenges, HE Hisham Zaazou, Minister of Tourism of Egypt, emphasised that the Egyptian tourism sector was able to withstand negative impacts. This is due to the sector's solid foundations and ability to overcome the challenges and obstacles it faces. HE also stated that Egypt remains to be home to the most prominent historical, cultural and art events in the region in addition to maintaining its position as one of the top destinations of choice for tourists from around the world.
HE pointed out that the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism's participation in the ATM affirms the strong relationship that Egypt has with Gulf States, particularly the UAE. Zaazou explained that he will be holding several meetings with the Arab and global tourism companies participating in ATM and which are dealing with the Egyptian Market.
HE mentioned that the Ministry is launching a range of measures to restore tourism rates to normal levels and consequently driving more investments into the Egyptian market. HE also shed light on the Ministry's strategy in the Arab markets in the next period and its plan to provide ongoing support to its partners by holding joint marketing and awareness campaigns, media tours, in addition to inviting representatives from tourism agencies and programmes and trip organisers to introduce them to the various offerings Egypt can provide to Arab tourists.
The Minister highlighted the importance of the tourism industry, as it is considered to be a key pillar of Egypt's national economy accounting for 11.3% of GDP ( through direct and indirect factors). Furthermore, the tourism industry provides 15.2% of foreign exchange earnings, 45.1% of exports services and 9.2% of the volume of investments in the services sector. In addition, it provides job opportunities for 12.6% of the total workforce in Egypt (1.8 million direct job opportunities and 1.2 million indirect ones). HE also highlighted Egypt's ranking as the 18th destination from the top fifty destinations worldwide and receiving the first place among the tourism destinations in MENA region during the year 2012.
HE also added that the Ministry has installed cameras in popular tourism locations to provide live feeds online which will reflect the calm and stable state they are in. This will aid in providing peace of mind for tourists, through showing them the level of safety found in these areas.
Zaazou said: "Tourisms rates began to return to normal levels, and to move towards the high rates witnessed in 2010. The first three months of the year 2013 saw a growth in the number of tourists coming to Egypt, which amounted for 2.8 million, reflecting an increase of 14.6 % compared to the first quarter of 2012. We will be concentrating our efforts on various global markets and in particular the Arab markets, as the number of Arab tourists amounted for 520,000 this year which reflects an increase of 7.5% compared to the first quarter of 2012."
HE added: "The Ministry, within its strategic plan, seeks to implement all necessary measures to enhance Egyptian tourism, whereby we will work on specific markets, including the Arab World, in addition to targeting new markets in South America (Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Mexico) and Asia (Malaysia, China, India, Korea and Vietnam). We will also market Egypt in co-chaired trips to enhance tourist services in line with global standards, and we will work on further developing our human resources in the tourism sector."
HE concluded: "Despite all the challenges faced, I expect the tourism industry to return to normal levels, and we are determined to restore the tourism peak levels achieved in 2010."
Records show that the number of tourists who visited Egypt during the three months of 2013 is2,865,097 tourists, compared to2,500,301 tourists in 2012 which shows an increase of about 14.6%. Furthermore, the number of nights tourists spent in Egypt is about 37 million nights, compared to approximately 29 million nights in the first quarter of 2012, which again shows an increase 28.1%.In addition, the number of Arab tourists during the first quarter of this year is 520,353 compared to 483,834 tourists in the same period of 2012, an increase of 7.5%. While the number of nights Arab tourists spent at Egypt is approximately 8.5 million nights compared to 7.4 million nights of the first quarter of 2012, an increase of 14.4%.
The Egyptian Tourist Authority
Egyptian Tourist Authority was established in March 1981, by presidential decree No. 134 endorsing a recommendation by the Minister of Tourism. The Authority is dedicated to promoting Egypt as a first class tourist destination, in line with the rise of tourism marketing as an independent discipline and the emergence of new tourism promotion tools. The Authority responded to the increasing competition in the travel and tourism industry, by adopting an advanced structure capable of dynamically dealing with the situation. The completion is due to the rising number of new attractive destinations, budget airlines and the huge progress made by the airlines industry.
For more information:
Ghaleb Zeidan / Wissam Al Saadi / Osama Dagamseh
Weber Shandwick MENA
Phone: + 971 50 778 2286 / +971 50 2527265 / +971 50 3319337
Fax: + 971 2 449 4833
Email: gzeidan@webershandwick.com; walsaadi@webershandwick.com; odagamseh@webershandwick.com
Press Release 2013
