Ahmed Youssef, CEO of the Egyptian Tourism Promotion Board (ETPB), has held a meeting with stakeholders to discuss ways of developing the conference and exhibition tourism sector in the country. Present at the meeting were: several board members of the Society for Incentive Travel Excellence (SITE), and members of the Egyptian Federation of Tourist Chambers specialising in exhibitions and conferences. The meeting took place as conference and exhibition tourism is considered an important tourism product for the country. This comes as part of the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities' strategy towards diversifying the various tourism products, in a way that contributes to pushing and stimulating inbound tourism to Egypt. Youssef started the meeting by stressing that the incentive tourism market found in conferences and exhibitions represents an important tourism pattern. It provides a great opportunity to highlight the Egyptian tourist destination, especially since the country has the infrastructure and the appropriate and well-qualified components for this unique tourism product. He also explained that Egypt tourism enjoys environmental, therapeutic, and cultural factors, in addition to its geographical location and its political and regional position. Due to this, it represents a very distinguished location to host dozens of international conferences annually in all fields, especially since Egypt has conference rooms at the highest level. During the meeting, the participants discussed the possibility of providing an electronic guide and comprehensive booklet providing detailed and accurate information on Egyptian companies operating in this field. This would include means of communicating with these companies, and will also present the available services, facilities, halls and spaces for conferences in Egypt, their capacity for access, and ways to access them. This is in addition to the available means of transportation to these facilities, and a review of technology available in these halls of modern devices. The meeting also discussed the possibility of making an electronic reservation and online registration service available from all over the world for holding conferences. At the end of the meeting, it was agreed for several professional meetings to be held in the coming period with decision-makers and major tourism companies operating in this field. This aims to develop a well-studied plan through continuous coordination between the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, the private sector, and representatives from all tourist chambers, as well as the Egyptian Federation of Tourist Chambers.
