With the start of the countdown to Egypt's hosting of the 27th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention on Climate Change (COP27), Ahmed Issa, Minister of Tourism and Antiquities, visited Sharm El-Sheikh to inspect hotel facilities that will receive foreign delegations participating in the conference scheduled for 6-18 November. During the tour, the Minister inspected the reception areas and the lobby, in addition to restaurants, kitchens and storage places for various food products located in these hotel establishments to ensure that they implement all food safety and health safety requirements, as well as inspecting the water desalination and treatment plants in them. During his tour, Issa was also keen to meet a number of workers in these hotel establishments, talk to them and get acquainted with their work tasks, the most prominent training courses they received and the experiences they enjoy. The Minister stressed the importance of continuing the existing and effective coordination and cooperation with the various stakeholders to complete all tourism preparations for the city of Sharm El-Sheikh within its transformation into a green and environmentally friendly city. Issa directed the need to work on completing all tourism preparations in the city before the start of the COP 27 activities in a sufficient time regarding making all hotel and tourist establishments obtain a certificate stating that they apply green practices, as well as what is related to the hotel establishments' commitment to applying high-speed Internet speeds, each according to its number of stars,and in accordance with the ministerial decision issued in this regard. During the tour, it was stressed the need for all hotel establishments in the city to abide by all health, preventive, tourism and food safety requirements in order to preserve the level of quality of services provided, whether for all tourists coming to it in general or from the delegations participating in the conference. For his part, Mohamed Amer, Head of the Central Administration for Hotel Establishments, Shops and Tourist Activities in the Ministry, confirmed that the implementation of works is in full swing in order to speed up the completion of the preparations for hosting the conference on time. It is worth noting that the reclassification of all hotel establishments in the city has been completed according to the new classification standards (HC) in cooperation with the World Tourism Organization. In addition, there are 132 hotel establishments in Sharm El-Sheikh that have already obtained certificates stating the application of green practices, in addition to 40 diving centers in the city that have obtained the Green Fins certificate, in addition to a number of hotel establishments that have taken into account the aspects of availability to receive soft tourism.
