THE Misr Company for Sound and Light has concluded its plans to open its fifth cultural entertainment facility in the Horus Temple in the Upper Egyptian city of Edfu. The illuminating disclosure was made by Eng. Essam Abdel Hadi, the company's chairman, during a meeting he had with members of the Club of Travel Writers and Journalists in Cairo. He added that the opening ceremony would take place in May this year. Eng. Abdel Hadi also emphasised that visitors to the temples of Dandara and Abidos in the Upper Egyptian cities of Qena and Sohag, would soon enjoy the admirable performance, in which the history of these places is told intriguingly in different foreign languages. The company's chairman also disclosed that they would soon throw much light on the history of Saladin Citadel in Cairo. The new ambitious step has been made after Misr Company for Sound and Light has floodlit the ancient fortress. Eng. Abdel Hadi estimated at LE34 million the costs of their new plans in the Saladin Citadel. Highlighting his company's new illuminating achievements made by his 50-year old company, Abdel Hadi told the meeting of the Club of Travel Journalists and Writers that they had concluded the supply of floodlights to the long Road of Rams in Luxor. He explained that Luxor's road came second only to the El-Moez Lidin Allah Street in Islamic Cairo. According to the company's chairman, Moez Lidin Allah Street is lined with 33 Islamic monuments and mosques, and its LE13 million floodlight project was opened by Mrs. Suzanne Mubarak a few days ago. The first sound and light project ever in Egypt was launched 50 years ago at the Pyramids in Giza. Since then, this fascinating night performance has been staged in different archaeological sites and ancient temples, which include the Temple of Karnak in Luxor and the Philae Temple in Aswan. Last year, the cultural and entertainment programme attracted the attention of more than 800,000 tourists, who were eager to take part in such a fascinating narration of the history of ancient places in the country. Eng. Abdel Hadi dismissed fears that the global economic crisis had compelled them to suspend their ambitions to throw more light on bigger number of monuments across the nation. “Rather, we are optimistically expecting to receive bigger numbers of audiences of our shows, most of them tourists, who return to their countries with good memories of Egypt,” the company's chairman emphasised during his meeting. Urging Egyptians to be no less enthusiastic than the foreigners, the sound and light official regretted that Egyptian audiences were hardly constituting more than three per cent of the audiences in these shows. “The Egyptians inexplicably keep away from our performances although their tickets are much cheaper than those of foreigners,” Eng. Abdel Hadi noted. It is known that Misr company for Sound and Light has earmarked LE35 million to conclude the project in the Temple of Horus in Edfu. Eng. Abdel Hadi added: “We have also allocated LE80-100 million to launch the project in Hurghada, which receives no less than 30 per cent of tourists visiting Egypt.” The budget will finance the construction of a life-size models of Egypt's archaeological landmarks and monuments. “Tourists in Hurghada will not have to travel to distant cities to watch Egyptian monuments,” the official said. “Tourists will discover the presence of these monuments next to their hotels and tourist villages” Meanwhile, the Governor of the Red Sea Gen. Magdi el-Kobesi, allocated 43, 000 square metres to the remarkable project. Eng. Abdel Hadi also announced that the western side of Luxor would soon witness the opening of the biggest ever floodlight in the city's history. The project was submitted to Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif during his recent visit to the city a few weeks ago. “About 6km long will be floodlit, in addition to the Valley of Kings and the valley of Queens, to entertain tourists during their night visits to the area,” Eng. Abdel Hadi said. Swine flu threat abates The Cabinet has decided to suspend a former decision, which banned Egyptians under 25 and above 65 from performing the annual trip to the holy sites in Saudi Arabia. The Cabinet's change of mind came after the unsubstantial threat of A/H1N1 in society has retreated. The state of panic in Egypt over swine flu compelled authorities to reduce to 49,000 the number of Egyptians, who performed the Umra (lesser pilgrimage) last year against 750, 000 the previous year. **Saudi Arabia last year received 3.2 million Muslims from different countries, who performed the Umra in the holy sites. The Saudi authorities expected that the number of these pilgrims would increase to 10 million within seven years. Concerted efforts **There is hardly any doubt that the high-level and sincere co-operation between the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism on the one hand, and different tourist sectors in the country on the other, has yielded positive results in connection with Umra and Hajj (greater pilgrimage). For example, the traditional overcrowding of pilgrims in seaports and airports has been no more, especially after the Ministry of Tourism has outlined strict and binding rules and regulations. The market witnessed a remarkable stability after the Ministry of Tourism threatened to close down agencies or companies, violating its rules and restrictions. **A few days ago, Minister of Tourism Zoheir Garranah approved the new rules in connection with this year's Umra trips. Meanwhile, Osama el-Ashri, the first undersecretary of the Ministry of Tourism held the annual meeting with representatives of travel agencies and companies, which organise holy trips to Saudi Arabia. ** Minister of Tourism Zoheir Garranah attributed the big success his ministry had achieved in this tourist sector to the concerted and colossal efforts made to overcome problems, which had been reported in previous seasons. Garranah revealed his ministry's success during his annual press conference, in which he assessed the performance of tourism industry in Egypt in 2009. The press conference was attended, in addition to Osama el-Ashri, by Adel Farid, chairman of the Religious Tourism Committee in the Travel Chamber; Bassel el-Sisi, chief of the Economic Committee. [email protected]
