CAIRO: ‘A thousand smiles' campaign will be launched in Paris during the upcoming days to attract the French tourists to Egypt, according to the Egyptian Minister of Tourism Mounir Fakhry Abdel Nour. Nour said there has been a cooperative agreement between Egypt and Turkey on tourism marketing. His remark was made in a press conference of International tourism, held in Sharm el-Sheikh, on Thursday. The press conference was in framework of events of World Travel Awards festival. Nour said all land withdrawn from the investors returned for serious investors only. He added tourism revenues could decrease by 25 percent and valued at U.S. $10 billion if the status quo continued. The Minister held a meeting with Tourism Development Authority to send the world a message that the Egyptian government stands besides all investors and eases all obstacles they might face. On his part, the governor of South Sinai Khaled Fouda said tourism occupancy rate reached 67 percent and added all beaches are safe and there are no sharks. Fouda noted the governorate, in cooperation with the Army forces, are comprehensively exploring beaches and monitoring all passing ships along the gulf of the coast of Aqaba.
