CAIRO: Setting effective measures to reduce road accidents, activating regulations to protect the national asset of ecotourism, establishing training centers and programs and creating nationwide awareness campaigns are only a few highlights of the plan already put into action by the Egyptian Tourism Federation (ETF) to improve the overall experience of tourists in Egypt. These measures come as a result of the previous ETF board's enlistment of the help of a specialized international company to establish the vision and mission of the federation, according to Ahmed El Nahas, current chairman. Throughout 100 hours of sessions over a period of five months, plans were formulated and committees established to execute these plans. According to a media briefing organized by the current board that started its work earlier this year, many of the plan s objectives are now beyond the study phase and new decisions will be announced soon. The frequency of road accidents that have recently claimed the lives of many tourists of different nationalities was one of the chief concerns addressed. After analyzing the causes of these accidents, the human element was discovered to be at fault 80 percent of the time, said Hisham Zaazou, the federation director general. Speeding and driver fatigue were identified as the main causes. Thus, ensuring the capability of tourist bus drivers has become an essential goal. So far about 1,600 drivers out of more than 8,000 have undergone physical and psychological checkups. The rest are expected to receive the same checkups by the end of this year, according to federation officials. Also, over the course of the next six months, the federation expects to install speed limiters (set at 100 kilometers per hour) in most tourist buses. With an estimated 7,000 tourism buses in the country, travel agencies with transportation vehicles that don t comply would be questioned. As added insurance, international safety and automobile maintenance standards should be applied soon on all vehicles serving tourists; random technical checks on buses are to be carried out to limit violations. Checks, Zaazou said, won t take place in garages but rather on buses during their operating hours, while the tourists are out sightseeing for example. These random checks would also apply to drivers to ensure they don t spend more than the specified time behind the wheel. Furthermore, in order to make tourist's experiences in Egypt more memorable and encourage tourists to make repeat visits, the federation has helped reduce red tape in the procedures tourists go through at border crossings; Arab tourists are a main concern in this regard. Efforts are now focused on increasing the influx of Arab tourists by reducing and easing procedures they have to go through at the customs and tariffs department and during visa issuing. During the media meeting with the federation s board, Mahmoud El Qaysouni, head of the ecotourism committee, brought attention to this often overlooked part of tourism. He also highlighted a number of environmental violations that he is working on eliminating with the collaboration of governors and different ministries. The Western Desert is the number one desert in the world in terms of dryness, noted El Qaysouni, and thus the place attracts tourists of all sorts, whether for the purpose of health, bird watching and nature observing, safaris or visiting the scattered oases and their monuments. Added to these attractions, continuous discoveries of primitive man caves dating as far back as 20,000 years ago, giant dinosaur skeletons (about the height of a 10-storey building) and massive meteorite impact sites are all to be found in the Western Desert. Lack of awareness of the importance and value of these sites, coupled with old restrictions on desert traveling and a considerable dose of bureaucracy, prevent these sites from receiving the proper attention that they require, El Qaysouni explained. As El Qaysouni works to limit and eliminate violations. Illegal hunting is one of the main concerns and the lack of awareness remains an issue. Problems that all committees in the federation cite. Now we address 70 million Egyptians . Now we address the world, El Nahas adds, explaining that to surpass the initial aim of 16 million tourists a year to reach a goal of 40 million, everyone in Egypt has to help. The awareness of the importance of tourism and the proper treatment of tourists should start with education, he adds. Along the same lines falls the importance of providing qualified personnel to cater to the expected increase in tourism projects. Besides a fully equipped training center that would open in about three years and would provide practical training, the federation is organizing ongoing training programs in conjunction with local hotels. The most important issue now is to raise the quality of services in hotels and other related establishments, El Nahas said. Hotels will be subject to technical checks and other tests of service quality. But to implement these plans, an executive authority is needed. The federation has a strong voice in the ministry [of tourism], said Mohamed Osman, the federation vice chairman. Law article 85, established in 1968, provides such authority, making the federation s approval a necessary procedure for implementing new tourism related regulations. He cited three presidential decisions that have originated at the federation as a result of their studies: one percent of training program revenues now go to the tourism field; the skies have been opened for more airline routes and the federation s approval is now an essential procedure before imposing any extra fees on tourist-related activities.
