CAIRO, April 5, 2018 - We are working hard to see the tourism sector leap forward in the near future, Tourism Minister Rania el-Mashat said on Thursday. "The political leadership attaches great importance to a flourishing tourist sector so as to create a state of prosperity," el-Mashat told a press conference on Thursday. The tourism sector should boom soon, she said, as efforts to promote tourism to Egypt are stepped up abroad, shesaid. The Ministry of Tourism is working on opening up new markets for Egyptian tourism and campaigns are being carried out to promote tourism and deal with new tour operators. During the press conference, the Minister said her Ministry was working around the clock to create a "trade mark" for Egyptian tourism. She said that Egypt had a very important market in painting, music and handicrafts and that would be promoted appropriately. The Minister added that the Asian market was one of the new markets which the ministry was planning to open.There were 150 million Chinese tourists annually worth $200 billion. There were also tourist markets in Latin America and the United States. The world economy, she said,was rapidly growing and this increased the purchasing power and the willingness to travel. The ministry was currently working to restore confidence with tour operators in various international tourist markets, el-Mashat said. It had also taken part in many tourist exhibitions to promote Egyptian tourism. Egypt will take part in the Dubai Travel Market 2018 later this month. The aim is to promote and refresh Arab tourism in general and Egyptian tourism in particular. It is an increasingly important international trade fair for the travel industry. "We will work according to new mechanisms to promote tourism through influential figures in different countries, social networking media and various mass media," she said. The Ministry of Tourism has paid great attention to giving training courses to those working in the tourism sector and the graduates of the Faculty of Tourism and Hotel Management in co-operation with various ministries as well as Egyptian universities. The World Tourism Organisation (WTO) will hold its annual conference in the Red Sea resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh next month, Minister el-Mashat said. A unified tourism law is to be issued soon. Its purpose was to encourage capital owners and businessmen to increase their investments in Egypt.
