Berlin, March 8, 2018 - Foreign tour operators have expressed optimism on the outlook of Egypt's tourism industry in the coming months, Minister of Tourism Rania el-Mashat said on Thursday. In a statement released by the Tourism Ministry, el-Mashat said that the optimism voiced by foreign tour operators during Berlin's international travel and tourism fair ITB prompts more cooperation with them. On the sidelines of the travel fair, the minister held talks with foreign tour operators and discussed the problems they face in Egypt, asserting that the government is committed to all the agreements it signed with foreign partners between 2015 and 2017. Minister el-Mashat also discussed with the tour operators joint promotional campaigns that can help attract more tourists to Egypt's tourist attractions, especially Luxor, Aswan and Abu Simbel in the light of the new archaeological discoveries in the country. She said that Egypt is on its way back to restore its tourism sector to pre-revolutionary levels, adding that there are good indicators on the increase of bookings to Egypt's destinations in the coming season. The minister also referred to the fact that tourist arrivals to Egypt in 2017 have reflected a growing improvement in Egypt's tourism sector. She highlighted that tourist arrivals from Germany to Egypt were the highest last year, followed by arrivals from Ukraine and Saudi Arabia, respectively. The political leadership, she added, is paying due attention to the tourism sector and is using all necessary resources to upgrade this vital industry. A higher tourism council was established in 2017 under the chairmanship of President Abdel Fattah El Sisi in order to set out urgent solutions to any problem undermining the work of the sector, Minister el-Mashat said. In recent years, the Egyptian government has been stepping up its efforts in order to attract tourists back to Egypt's tourist attractions.
