Statement from Egypt’s Tourism Ministry

CAIRO - The Ministry of Tourism of the Arab Republic of Egypt is very keen to state below some very important facts about the current situation in Egypt and its effect on the tourism sector in the country:

• On September 12th, 2013, State of Emergency had been extended for two months in order to help the competent authorities to fully bring the country's situation under control.
• A curfew from 12 p.m. to 5 a.m. is applied in some governorates during the week days except on Fridays the curfew starts at 7 p .m. and ends at 6 a.m.
• Daily life in Egypt is going on very normal.
• Tourism Minister Hisham Zaazou is making direct and intensive contacts with the travel industry abroad to help assist the government to improve Egypt's tourism in the coming period, following the recent events.
• While placing emphasis on maintaining tourism partnerships abroad, Mr. Zaazou asked foreign travel agencies to push their governments to lift their negative travel advisories for Egypt since the national curfew is not imposed in many beach tourist sites.
• The Minister assured that the level of violence is dwindling down very fast and that the security and safety is now currently even better by the day, by the hour.
• The Minister is in direct contact with the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, particularly in Europe, as well as with Embassies in Egypt to lift, even on a gradual basis travel advisories that were issued by some governments abroad deterring potential tourists coming to Egypt from visiting the country. The Minister asked different governments not to include the Red Sea areas in the travel advisories in order to enable partners to continue to do business with Egypt.
• The Minister assured that because of some negative coverage from the media and some of the negative travel advisories, these advisories should be reconsidered and lifted by these relative governments.
• ln spite of the fact that at the moment there is a curfew in Egypt in few places, it does not include the Red Sea area or Sharm el-Sheikh or the southern Sinai area. The Minister confirms that the government is urging for all guests to come and enjoy his or her time... sound and safe.
• Some foreign safety experts visited Egypt recently for the purpose of inspecting the security measures applied in the country especially in airports and major tourist destinations such as Luxor, Aswan, Sharm El-Sheikh, Hurghada, Marsa Alam, Safaga and Qusier. The preliminary reports followed the inspections indicate that the final ones would come very positive.
• Various international media representative were invited to visit Egypt with the aim of seeing the reality, on grounds, the safety and security that prevailed in the tourist destinations.
• The Ministry is maintaining contact with travel operators and agencies to provide them with updates regarding the situation in Egypt. 

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