Foreign offices to promote New Suez Canal Axis project: Tourism minister

Egyptian tourism income increased to $3.3bn from January to June versus $3.2bn in the same period last year

The Ministry of Tourism instructed its foreign offices in tourists exporting markets to follow the opening of the Suez Canal Axis on Thursday, said Tourism Minister Khaled Rami.
According to a statement issued by the Ministry of Tourism, the New Suez Canal Axis project was brought up during meetings with foreign tourism agencies and the ministry is preparing to launch new tourism projects at the Suez Canal following the completion of the opening events.
The minister revealed that news concerning the canal is being publicised among the promotional news on Egypt. He added that the ministry's websites and pages have been revitalised to follow the events of the opening. In addition, the Nile News Channel will broadcast all films concerning the Suez Canal project, to be viewed at hotels.
The Minister of Tourism believes that the New Suez Canal Axis project will have a positive impact and will stimulate tourism traffic to Egypt during the upcoming period.
Roughly four million tourists visited Egypt during the first half of 2015 compared to 3.6 million tourists during the same period last year. Egyptian tourism income increased to $3.3bn during the period from January to June, compared to $3.2bn in the same period of last year.
Rami announced the implementation of an integrated plan to promote the opening ceremony of the new Suez Canal Axis, and to utilise the event in support of incoming tourism. The ministry scheduled a major promotional campaign for the canal area as an important destination for foreign visitors to Egypt during the upcoming period.
Cairo hotels have prepared to host delegations arriving to participate in the canal opening ceremony next Thursday, according to the Minister of Tourism. The ministry aims to raise the number of incoming tourism to 11 million tourists by the end of this year.
The minister said that the financial allocations for the closed foreign tourist offices in Poland and Stockholm will be directed to the promotion campaign to double the number of tourists coming from other countries.
Rami added that the ministry is currently following the work of foreign offices through a regular biannual evaluation.
He explained that a new scheme for the foreign offices has been penned. The developed scheme includes better time management to expand the work of the supervision of some offices in the neighbouring countries, which do not have promotion offices. He cited that the Egyptian office in Germany handles tourism promotion in Poland and Austria.
Rami believes that the weakness of the tourism movement and the poor state of the tourism sector have caused the low hotel prices fixity. He added that the state is in need of launching major marketing campaigns during the upcoming period, as they were halted over the past four years.
The ministry, according to Rami, has outlined an integrated plan to raise the tourism rates in Luxor and Aswan through the promotion of Nile tourism and the rehabilitation of the Nile berths. He added that 25% of the total allocations for tourism promotions will be assigned for that purpose, noting that a representative of Luxor will be assigned as a member of the Egyptian Tourism Federation to support Nile tourism.