Minister of Tourism Zoheir Garana said that in light of the global economic crisis and the environmental disasters that hit some countries, especially pig and avian flu, the Egyptian tourist destination would not make profits, but it will not suffer losses, thanks to the good promotional mechanisms implemented by the Ministry of Tourism in some European and Arab markets, adding that Egypt got 9% of the international tourism market, an increase of 25%. He told Al-Masry Al-Youm that the reports that the Ministry of Tourism received from the Egyptian travel agencies, the Passport Control Authority and the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics confirm that incoming tourism to Egypt is normal, despite the spread of swine flu, thanks to the pre-emptive measures taken by the competent Egyptian authorities, especially the Ministry of Tourism.
He said that visits of the Egyptian tourism sector to the Arab and global markets were successful. The latest of them was a convoy to Bahrain headed by Amr el-Ezabi, the head of the Tourism Promotion Authority, and another to Tunisia, headed by Sami Mahmoud, Under-Secretary of the Ministry of Tourism and President of the International Tourism Sector.
He pointed out that what a columnist of a daily newspaper said about the Ministry of Tourism failing to handle the issue of the Russian tourist Boris Maximov, 18, who died while climbing Mount Moses, is not true, as the Ministry of Tourism met with a delegation of five members of the Russian Embassy in Cairo and paid them back the US$ 14,000 that his mother had paid to the rescue services to use airplanes to search for his body. He said the Begas Travel Agency paid the sum in full to the Ministry of Tourism. He said the mother of the victim did not incur any expenses for the search that took place in Mount Moses. She was in a difficult psychological state and requested that the search and rescue of her son be carried out by helicopters at her own expense, and that she is willing to pay for the costs.
He pointed out that the regulations of the search and rescue bodies stipulate that they get their fees from the party who requests their services, then the travel agency or the Ministry of Tourism take up the expenses, as the tourist does not incur anything, adding that the Ministry of Tourism expressed its condolences to the Russian Embassy in Cairo for the death of the victim, who was an amateur mountain climber.
