Egypt's Tourism Minister Receives IPRA President's Awar

Egypt's Tourism Minister, Hisham Zaazou, was today recognised by IPRA 2013 President, Christophe Ginisty as the recipient of the 2013 IPRA President's Award.

Presenting the award, Ginisty, explained that, upon learning of the appointment by President Morsi to the office of Governor of the Luxor Province of a person linked to the 1997 terrorist attack on tourists, Mr Zaazou had immediately resigned. He had maintained his resignation in the face of strong pressure and the new governor's appontment was rescinded.

"The President's award is designed to "recognise outstanding contribution to better world understanding", I believe that what Hisham Zaazoun did is particularly inspiring. It is something that very few politicians would have done in similar circumstances and I am full of respect for this. It is a demonstration of honesty, transparency, credibility and consistency" Ginisty said.

"Such a stand sent a clear message to both Egypt and the rest of the world that inviting tourists to visit historical sites under the governance of a leader associated with a massacre was simply unthinkable."

The award was made in Paris at the ReputationWar Conference, organised by Mr Ginisty and where Hisham Zaazou was keynote speaker.

@http://newsroom.ipra.org/egypts-tourism-minister-receives-ipra-presidents-award/

Tourism Minister pays surprise visit to Sharm El-Sheikh

Tourism Minister Hisham Zaazou embarked on a surprise visit to hotels and tourist destinations in Sharm El-Sheikh to inspect services provided for tourists.

During the visit, Zaazou voiced optimism on restoring international tourist flows to Egypt.

The minister told MENA that he was keen to visit Naama Bay to get to know first-hand about tourists' complaints and the real situation there.

Egypt ministry of tourism setting up new convention centre in Alexandria

Egypt ministry of tourism is setting up a new convention center in Alexandria, the first in the city. The convention center which is expected to be ready in two years, will be able to seat around 1000 people. Speaking exclusively to Financial Express Online, Dr Adel Masry, director, Egyptian Tourism Office, said, "The project will be on the BOT (Build, Operate and Transfer) basis. Egypt already convention centers in Cairo and Luxor. The MICE segment is very important for us and we want to attract more MICE events to Egypt. Luxor has 1500 rooms, Cairo has 3000 and Sharm el Sheikh has 2500 rooms. We are also looking at inviting Indian hotel companies like the Taj Group of Hotels to invest in Egypt."

Egypt Tourism is also planning a promotional campaign specifically for the India market. Dr Masry revealed, "Earlier we had one campaign for all the markets. But now we will have one only for India where we will use well known Indian film celebrities. This promotional campaign will be executed in two phases. We will invest half a million USD in the first phase and one million USD in the second phase. The first phase is expected to roll out by March 2014."

Egypt Tourism will also focus on new products like honeymoon packages, adventure sports like trekking, scuba diving and desert safari's. "We are also looking to promote oases as destinations and as movie locale. Like Sewa one of the four most important oases in Egypt, " Dr Masry added.

Recently in Luxor, 13 travel agents and tour operators from India and the Egypt ministry of tourism signed an MoU to initiate The Million Indian Tourists campaign which will run for two years from September 2014 to September 2017. The initiative will be a threefold joint promotion by the Egypt ministry of tourism, Egyptian tour operators and Indian tour operators. Egypt Tourism will support them by funding 25 per cent of their promotional spending. Some of the Indian tour operators who signed the MoU included Cox and Kings, Thomas Cook, Mercury Travels, Kuoni India, Kesari Tours, Veena World, etc. As part of the initiative the Egypt ministry of tourism has announced the launch of visa on arrival facility with effect from January 1, 2014 for Indian tourists who will come through the travel agents who have signed the MoU. The ministry also announced plans to start direct flights between Delhi and Cairo in January 2014 and depending on the load factors will look at flights from other Indian metros and also code sharing with Indian airline companies.