A mission of tourism firms representing European Union and Mediterranean Sea states is set to take part in the 3rd Euro-Mediterranean Tourism Forum. The forum will take place on Thursday August 4, 2016 at Alexandria Chamber of Commerce. Head of the chamber, Ahmed El-Wakeel stated Wednesday that the visiting tourism companies and the Egyptian tourism enterprises are scheduled to visit the local tourism sights in Alexandria today. The conference is organized in cooperation with the European Union within the framework of the European Neighbourhood Cross-Border Cooperation in the Mediterranean (ENPI CBC MED) Programme. The conference is set to be launched by Egyptian Tourism Minister Mohamed Yehia Rashed, in the attendance of Alexandria governor Mohamed Abdel-Zaher, James Moran -head of European Union Delegation to Egypt- in addition to leaders of Egyptian tourism and international cooperation ministries. Following the conference, bilateral business matchmaking meetings (B2B) will take place between 10 visiting European tourism companies from Italy, Spain and Greece as well as Lebanon and Jordan with the Egyptian counterpart tourism companies, the official noted. El-Wakeel ,also the chairman of Federation of Egyptian Chambers of Commerce (FEDCOC), said that the conference revolves around the results of two projects that were implemented in cooperation with the EU to support the tourism sector and to promote cultural tourism. The first project, UMAYYAD, promotes Islamic heritage tourism in Alexandria while the second one, GOALS targets promoting good participatory approach and local governance strategies in the tourism sector. Both projects aim to attract investments in the tourism sector and promote non-beach itineraries focusing on the culture and heritage of Alexandria, the official pointed out.
