CAIRO: As the Hotel Information Program on the Internet's importance for the Egyptian tourism sector successfully concluded in Cairo last week, this innovative educational seminar received strong praise from the Assistant Minister of Tourism Hisham Zaazou. Zaazou stated, "I am a firm believer in the need for this program, which is well aligned with the Ministry's existing goals to continuously improve the country's tourism infrastructure and services. We are encouraging those working on the program to extend the program to include travel agencies who are a very important segment of the tourism sector. The new program will be launched under the name of "The Importance of Communications and the Internet for Travel Agencies. Due to the great success of the Hotel information Program and the recommendation of Zaazou, the project team has commenced collaboration on a special program with Khaled El Manawi, chairman of the Egyptian Travel Agents Association (ETAA). With the cooperation of the training committee of the ETAA, they will design a program for the country's travel agencies. The resulting educational roadshow will start next week and will travel to five major cities: Luxor, Mansoura, Hurghada, Alexandria, and Cairo. "Further building global standards into Egypt's tourism sector is essential for our country, including harnessing Internet services across this critical sector of the economy. It is essential that tourists can find out about Egypt travel before they arrive to Egypt, then 'stay connected' during their visit, Ismail Abaza, senior tourism advisor to the project. "The latest Internet technology lends a stronger competitive edge to not only individual hotels and travel companies in Egypt, but also the country's tourism sector as a whole. Hotel operators realize this fully following our seminars to hotel operators, and we look forward to communicating a similar message to tour operators next month.
