Egypt's Minister of Tourism and Antiquities Khaled El-Anani has met with Ambassador of South Korea in Cairo, Hong Jin-wook, to discuss expanding cooperation between the two countries in the field of tourism and cultural heritage. The meeting dealt with discussing mechanisms of promoting Egyptian tourist destinations in South Korea by preparing joint promotional programs in a way that encourages the tourist movement from Korea to Egypt. Also, they discussed the possibility of benefiting from Korean expertise in the field of technology and working on implementing a number of projects to raise the efficiency of services provided to visitors, whether Egyptians or tourists, and to improve their experience during visiting museums and archaeological sites, within the framework of the ministry's strategy for digital transformation, in addition to discussing the organization of a temporary exhibition. To the Egyptian antiquities in Korea, especially in light of the great interest of the Korean people in the ancient Egyptian civilization, the itinerary of the Holy Family's journey, and St. Catherine's Monastery. Ambassador Hong said that aside from all-time great achievements at the governmental level, we can not emphasize enough the importance of enhancing mutual understanding by people-to-people exchange to make our solid friendship sustainable. In this sense, appreciating the Egyptian government's efforts to restore its tourism industry such as infrastructure construction and precautionary measures against Covid-19, he emphasized that he would do his best for his part so that more Korean tourists will visit this amazing country soon. Ambassador Hong also hailed Egypt as one of the Korean people's most favourite destinations, saying the Korean people have deep affection and respect for ancient Egyptian monuments, such as Pyramids and Sphinx. Explaining that the Egyptian government has been recording a rebound in the number of foreign tourists in recent times mainly due to the influx from European countries, Minister El-Anani expressed his wish to closely cooperate with the Korean government to increase the volume of Korean tourists. In addition to that, Ambassador Hong, mentioning the recent visit by the Korean Cultural Heritage Administration (CHA) to its Egyptian counterpart, the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), said that cultural heritage is also one of the promising areas which can diversify two countries' cooperation and conveyed the Korean government's wish to strengthen joint efforts with Egypt, the cradle of civilization. El-Anani also appreciated the ongoing collaborations between the two countries' experts including the Korean delegation's recent successful visit to Egypt and suggested that two sides have continuous discussions to seek mutually beneficial projects.
