Egypt's Minister of Tourism Rania Al-Mashat, and the Minister's Advisor for Training Soha Bahgat met with Lucy Garner, senior expert in education and training at the United Nation's World Trade Organisation Academy (UNWTO), and Basmah Al-Mayman, UNTWO's Regional Director of the Middle East, to discuss cooperation in establishing an international training centre in Egypt. Al-Mashat stated that the establishment of the training centre in Egypt will contribute to the creation of qualified and trained workers in the tourism sector, who will be able to meet the requirements of the current and future market, and subsequently enhance the competitiveness of the sector. Al-Mahsat asserted that enhancing the sector's competitiveness is in line with the objective of Egypt's Tourism Reform programme (E-TRP), explaining that it depends on two main components, the hardware aiming to raise the efficiency of tourist facilities and hotel infrastructure. "While the second component is the software, which aims to invest in the human element and raise their efficiency, in order to enhance the quality of services provided to the tourists," Al-Mashat further explained. She pointed out that the overall objective of the E-TRP is to employ, either directly or indirectly, at least one person from each Egyptian family currently in the tourism sector and its related activities. She also affirmed the ministry's keenness to apply tourism ethics in basic education curricula, pointing out that the ministry is in the process of signing a cooperation protocol with the Ministry of Education to educate school students and make them aware of the importance of the tourism sector as a basic pillar supporting the national economy. During the meeting, they also discussed the fields in which the Ministry of Tourism aims to increase training for, with specific attention paid to hotels, resort management and planning, employment, and marketing. Al-Mashat explained that the ministry will provide grants for qualified workers in tourism in order to participate in these training programmes. Meanwhile, Garner praised the ministry's strategy to raise the efficiency of human resources working in the Egyptian tourism sector. She added that during her visit to Egypt, she met with the Egyptian Tourism Federation to find out what the procedures are to establish an international training centre in Egypt.
