CAIRO - Egypt and Spain, which have a long history of fruitful co-operation in all aspects, have agreed to bolster their tourism ties, a Government official said Friday. Tourism Minister Mounir Fakhri Abdel Nour stated that his talks with the Spanish Ambassador to Egypt focused on finding the best means for promoting bilateral co-operation, with special emphasis on the tourism industry and training in this sector, an area where Spain has much experience. According to Abdel Nour, they also talked about ways so that tourism revenues would rebound by more than a third in the coming year. Tourism used to account for more than a tenth of Egypt's gross domestic product (GDP) before last year's uprising and employed an estimated one out of eight in a country, where high unemployment fuelled the anger that led to the revolution. Minister Abdel Nour said he was keen to meet with the Spanish Ambassador, whose country would be hosting the FITUR tourism conference from January 18 to 22. He said he would represent Egypt at this international gathering along with major travel companies to motivate foreign tourists to return to Egypt. Meanwhile, the Spanish Ambassador said that the two countries were keen to increase their tourism co-operation now that Cairo and Madrid had every good potential to flourish and grow. He said that he was quite confident that tourists would return to Egypt once the necessary conditions were restored.
