AGLOBA L sigh of relief has been heaved after the volcanic ash emitted from the Icelandic volcano had subsided, and grounded planes in airports worldwide have received the signal to take off. God alone knows what will happen to the life on our planet if a number of volcanoes erupt simultaneously. Losses incurred by airlines alone as a result of Iceland's volcano are estimated at $1.7 billion. Travel agencies, hotels, shops, individuals sustained much bigger losses. As soon as airlines began to recover from the global financial crunch, more than 100,000 flights were suspended and about 1.2 million passengers had to cancel their trips. Although the thick clouds of Iceland's volcano did not continue their journey southward across the Mediterranean, the domestic economy and tourism industry did not escape safely. **However, we should acknowledge the swift strategies adopted by Egyptian aviation and tourist officials to dispel the fallout of the Iceland's volcano, especially after airports across Europe were shut down. The Minister of Civil Aviation Air Marshal Ahmed Shafiq led a high-level team of his assistants and aides to closely follow the development of the crisis abroad and its impact at home. EgyptAir performed wisely and successfully by flying its giant planes to open skies and carry its passengers to the nearest point to their destinations. **In the meantime, Minister of Tourism Zoheir Garranah formed an operation room to oversee the implementation of instructions and services with the aim of strengthening the credibility of Egypt's tourism among tourists, who were caught off their guard in the country and failed to fly back to their home countries. **These measures were taken in collaboration with the Egyptian Federation of Travel Associations and the Egyptian Hotels' Association. Firm instructions were distributed to hotels to allow stranded tourists to extend their stay until the situation was cleared. Travel agencies and tour companies were also ordered not to carry their customers to the airport unless they received confirmation about the resumption of flights. **Despite the big losses incurred by the aviation and tourist sectors in Egypt, the crisis was a blessing in disguise. Suffice it to say that Egypt's management style of such a problem has deepened Egypt's reputation worldwide and increased the confidence of its lovers in its time-honoured potentials. Sinai Liberation Day Egypt on Sunday (April 25) celebrated the 28th anniversary of the Sinai liberation. I have vivid memories of the first days, in which the liberation of the peninsula was announced. We were in Sharm el- Sheikh, which was slightly dotted at that time with hotels made from wood. Food and beverage were ordered from the city of Suez. Before it was freed from the Israeli occupation, Sinai was put on the tourist map of Israel. The Jewish state used to invite tourists to visit the peninsula only to mislead the international community about its (the peninsula's) identity and future. Israel's malicious schemes have been aborted and Sinai and its gem, Sharm el-Sheikh, have become one of the most admirable tourist destinations in Egypt. Moreover, together with Hurghada, Sharm el-Sheikh has 110,000 hotel rooms more than half of hotel rooms in the entire country. It is known that hotels established by Israelis in Sharm el-Sheikh were demolished and more admirable and elegant hotels have been constructed by the Egyptians. **Biting their nails in regret, the Israelis refused to pack up and leave without receiving the price for the rubble of their constructions. The irony was that the frustrated Israelis exaggerated the prices of their derelict buildings, which included the Sonesta Taba Hotel, which was replaced by Hilton Taba. **Further, after 10 years Sharm el-Sheikh, which is now the world's best resort, will be declared the first carbon- free Green Area in the Middle East. More than 33 environmentfriendly projects are under construction in the city to preserve its coral reefs, and raw nature. The city's hotels will be provided with the renewable and clean energy. **It goes without saying that with the liberation of Sinai 28 years ago, Egypt witnessed the birth of the modern tourism revol tion. Since then, integrated and carefully-suggested tourist projects have been springing up in Sinai and the Red Sea. The huge budgets, which were allocated to the wars, were allocated to finance the construction of large-size tourist and development projects. Together with its landmarks of human civilisations and history, Egypt's seashore tourism in Sinai and the Red Sea has become globally admired. Moreover, Egypt outperformed many other tourist destinations after introducing its Desert Tourism, Adventure Tourism and the Therapeutic Tourism. The modern tourist renaissance in Egypt bore fruit after the number of tourists in the country increased from one million years ago to more than 12 million last year. In the meantime, the number of hotel rooms increased from 18, 000 to 215, 000 in the corresponding period; and about 199,000 rooms are under construction.. **Also on celebrating the liberation of Sinai 28 years ago, Egypt decided to upgrade its basic infrastructures to encourage Arab and foreign investors to come forward and take part in the economic revolution. Thanks to such big efforts, Egypt is now leading emerging economies in the world. According to reports complied by the World Bank, Egypt has maintained 5.5 per cent economic growth, which will increase to six per cent next year. **The civil aviation sector has also achieved remarkable successes: new airports have been constructed in Cairo, Aswan, Luxor, Sharm el- Sheikh, Borg el-Arab and Hurghada. In the meantime, the national carrier, EgyptAir, coped with such a renaissance on the ground by boosting its fleet with giant planes. The quality services and internationally standardised operations in Cairo airport entitled EgyptAir to join the Star Alliance. Invitation starts from Qatar **Egypt launched a week-long culture festival in Qatar to mark the declaration of Doha the Capital of Islamic Culture in 2010. The Egyptian festivities drew much attention in this Arab Gulf country. The success echoed far and wide in the Gulf area. The Egyptian culture festival in Qatar coincided with the release of promotional and publicity campaign in different Arab countries ahead of the summer season this year. But it remains unanswerable why the remarkable success of Egyptian cultural festivals in Arab countries is not exploited to boost campaigns being made to draw the attention of bigger numbers of Arab tourists to Egypt's destinations and tourist products. **Despite this shortcoming, different festivals, such as the tour of King Tutankamun in New York after 30- year-absence, are easily reporting tremendous success at home. Substantial speculations are emphasising that bigger numbers of American tourists have been invited by King Tutankamun to visit his motherland. **Shoot-to-kill whom? **I strongly appreciate a statement by Gamal Mubarak, in which he denounced a call from MPs to shoot to kill demonstrators. It must be said that national newspapers were the first to disgrace these aggressive MPs, who wanted to gun down protesters. In his strong statement, Mr. Gamal Mubarak condemned the MPs for their ‘unacceptable threat'. He also warned that such hostile attitude would affect the credibility of the ruling party. **I think that Mr. Gamal Mubarak's condemnation should lead to the dismissal of these disgraced MPs from the Parliament. [email protected]
