SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt, May 12, 2018 - Egypt's Tourism Minister Rania al-Mashat said on Saturday that the government was exerting strenuous efforts to attract the largest number of Chinese tourists. Al-Mashat's remarks came in an exclusive interview with Xinhua on the sidelines of the 44th meeting of the UN World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) Commission for the Middle East and UNWTO Regional Conference, which wrapped up Thursday in Sharm el-Sheikh city. "China is a very important country and one of the largest exporters of tourism in the world," the minister said, adding that China annually exports about 150 million tourists, spending about 200 billion US dollars. She stressed that Egypt will make great efforts and is working to provide large facilities to attract more Chinese tourists in the future. Al-Mashat pointed out that there is coordination and co-operation with the Chinese side on this regard, noting that the role of the Egyptian Tourist Office in Beijing will be activated soon. "I believe that there will be more Chinese tourists coming in the near future," the minister said. She strongly welcomed China's investment in the tourism sector in Egypt, stressing there are many tourism opportunities for Chinese investors. Egypt is a favourable attraction to hundreds of thousands of Chinese tourists each year for its historical sites and sunny sandy beaches. According to Egyptian statistics, China has become the fourth largest exporter of tourists to Egypt since the beginning of 2017. Meanwhile, the minister said that the tourism sector at the international level is growing due to the increase in the economic growth of a large number of economies. This certainly means that there will be a demand for investment in the tourism sector, both regarding tourist facilities and other tourism activities, she explained. She pointed out that Egypt has witnessed in 2017 a remarkable increase in tourist numbers, which is a promising indication for an improvement of the sector. Official Egyptian statistics reveal that Egypt's tourism revenues jumped 123.5 per cent year-on-year to US$7.6 billion in 2017. "We are keen to increase the quality and efficiency of our tourist destinations as well as increasing investment in the human factors in the tourism sector so that tourist experience in Egypt would be a happy one and thus tourists would visit Egypt more than once," the minister added.
