Cairo's Hanging Church set to open in October

Cairo's Hanging Church set to open in October

Hanging Church in Old Cairo will reopen in October after long process of renovation

Hanging Church,

After four years of restoration work, the Hanging Church is set to officially reopen to the public in mid-October. Antiquities Minister Mamdouh El-Damati announced the reopening on Tuesday during his inspection tour around the different monuments of Mogamaa Al-Adian (religious compound), which includes the Amr Ibn Al-Ass Mosque, Ben Ezra Synagogue and a collection of churches.

This fourth-century edifice reached the end of its restoration in 2010 after 13 years of being hidden under iron scaffolding and piles of sand. Workers recovered the church and polished and strengthened its walls, ceilings and towers.

With its Basilica-style architecture on top of the Roman fortress of Babylon, the Hanging Church will greet its visitors and worshipers in mid-October.

During the tour, El-Damati announced that the adjacent church of Abu Serga will also be inaugurated in December after its restoration. He also declared that the entirety of Mogamaa Al-Adian is to be closed to traffic the same way El-Moez street was to provide serenity and divinity for its visitors and worshipers.

El-Damati described the awful condition of the streets surrounding the monuments as “shocking” and pledged to immediately contact Cairo’s governor to remove all of the garbage that is scattered all over the streets and external walls of the monuments.

Mohamed El-Sheikha, head of the projects section, told Ahram Online that the Hanging Church is safe and that all restoration works were carried out professionally and according to the latest technology.

He explained that the official inauguration was put on hold due to the lack of security in the aftermath of the January 2011 uprising but that now it is safe for Egyptians to celebrate its inauguration.

He went on to say that the Hanging Church, like other monuments located in heavily populated areas, was suffering from environmental hazards including air pollution, a high subsoil water level, a high rate of humidity, leakage of water from the outdated and a decayed 100-year-old sewage system. Other hazards include decorations of the church’s wooden ceiling being stained with smoke and the adverse effects of the 1992 earthquake, which resulted in more cracks on the church’s walls and foundation.

In 1997 the then Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) launched a comprehensive restoration project to preserve Egypt’s Coptic shrine and restore such a distinguished church to its original splendor.

The restoration work was carried out in three phases to reduce water leakage and strengthen the church’s foundations and the Babylon fortress to protect them from potential future damage. The walls were reinforced, missing and decayed stones were replaced and masonry cleaned and desalinated.

The decorations and icons of the church were also subjected to fine restoration in collaboration with Russian experts; new lighting and ventilation systems have also been installed

@http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/9/42/108805/Heritage/Coptic/Cairos-Hanging-Church-set-to-open-in-October.aspx

Celebrating Nefertari's tomb discovery to take place in Luxor 15 October

Celebrating Nefertari's tomb discovery to take place in Luxor 15 October

Nefertari's tomb

The civil aviation ministry and the tourism authority, in collaboration with Italian Embassy in Egypt, will organize a ceremony in commemoration of the discovery of Nefertari's tomb in Luxor 110 years ago.

The celebration will take place between 15-25 October in the Valley of Queens, Luxor.

Several Italian archaeologists, trip organizers, media professionals representing Egypt and Italy will attend.Two photo exhibitions will be held atthe  Luxor Exhibition and the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.

Tourism Minister Hesham Zaazou said these events have an important impact on promoting cultural tourism in order to assure stability and security were restored in Egypt.

Nefertari's tomb is one of the most important discoveries in the Valley of the Queens. It was discovered in 1904.

Visitors were allowed access after some damages due to precipitation of salts at the hole leading to the tomb were fixed. Nefertari is one of the most famous Egyptian queens.The civil aviation ministry and the tourism authority, in collaboration with Italian Embassy in Egypt, will organize a ceremony in commemoration of the discovery of Nefertari's tomb in Luxor 110 years ago.

The celebration will take place between 15-25 October in the Valley of Queens, Luxor.

Several Italian archaeologists, trip organizers, media professionals representing Egypt and Italy will attend.Two photo exhibitions will be held atthe  Luxor Exhibition and the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.

Tourism Minister Hesham Zaazou said these events have an important impact on promoting cultural tourism in order to assure stability and security were restored in Egypt.

Nefertari's tomb is one of the most important discoveries in the Valley of the Queens. It was discovered in 1904.

Visitors were allowed access after some damages due to precipitation of salts at the hole leading to the tomb were fixed. Nefertari is one of the most famous Egyptian queens.
@http://www.egyptindependent.com//news/celebrating-nefertari-s-tomb-discovery-take-place-luxor-15-october

Outbound travel to Egypt from UAE picks up in 2014

Outbound travel to Egypt from UAE picks up in 2014

Industry experts say visitors feel a little more safe about the North African destination

Wahashtona campaign

Dubai: Outbound travel from the UAE to Egypt is rising slightly as holidaymakers feel a little more safe about visiting the destination that has been mired in conflict the last few years, according to industry experts.

Egypt’s tourism industry has waned after its revolution erupted on January 25, 2011, with anti-government protests having had scared visitors away.

In a bid to revive its ailing tourism industry, in May this year, Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism launched an ad campaign called “We miss you” to lure back visitors from the Gulf. The video features shopping malls, luxury hotels and dancers.

There has been a revival in visitor numbers in certain markets this year. The number of UAE tourists in Egypt grew by 35 per cent to 10,250 during the first five months of the year, according to statistics from the Egyptian Tourism Authority. However, overall visitor numbers decreased by 26.2 per cent.

“The situation had been really bad. In 2010, Egypt used to be one of the destinations that were high in demand for leisure customers and incentive groups. At one point, it was also a wedding destination,” said Kulwant Singh, managing director of Lama Tours, a tour operator.

Singh said that when protests erupted in the country, airline bookings by leisure and business travellers started to decline.

Political unrest

But by late 2012, booking numbers started to “pick up”, with the majority made by leisure travellers, he said. The growth, however, is still small.

Egypt accounted for 10-12 per cent of Lama Tours’ outbound business in the years before the political unrest, but now it makes up 1-2 per cent, he said.

Manu Mehrotra, general manager at Al Travel Agency, said that in general, airline bookings for Egypt have risen 5-10 per cent this year compared to 2013.

Similarly, Singh said the slight rise in airline bookings has continued this year.

After a slight recovery in 2012, the industry took another hit when several people were killed after the Egyptian army overthrew ousted President Mohammad Mursi in July 2013 following protests against him.

The country’s tourism revenue plummeted by 41 per cent to $5.9 billion (Dh21.6 billion) in 2013 over 2012.

According to a report by hospitality consultancy, HVS, hotel occupancy levels in Sharm Al Shaikh have dropped from 79 per cent in 2010 to 56 per cent in 2013, while average daily rate (ADR) fell by around 30 per cent during this period.

In Cairo, however, revenue per available room (RevPAR — an industry benchmark for performance) was 55 per cent lower in 2013 than it was over 2009-2010, according to HVS estimates.

Meanwhile, Europe has traditionally been Egypt’s largest source market, with a share of over 70 per cent. However, in May this year, European visitor numbers dropped to 590,000 from 684,000 during the same time a year ago.

Safer destination

Sharm Al Shaikh hotels saw occupancy rates drop 9 per cent to 59.7 per cent during June over the corresponding time a year ago, while in Cairo, occupancy edged down 1.3 per cent to 49.6 per cent, according to the June HotStats report. ADR of hotels in Sharm Al Shaikh fell 9 per cent to $41.

“June typically generates strong demand from leisure tourists and charters across the CIS region and Europe, however, the travel bans imposed by many European countries during the year diverted visitors to safer holiday destinations. Hoteliers were forced to lower the average rates for leisure visitors and tour groups by 18.1 per cent and 15 per cent, respectively, during the first half of the year,” stated Peter Goddard, managing director of TRI Hospitality Consulting, in the HotStats report.

In Cairo, though, ADR was up 5.5 per cent to $116.

In general, hotels in Egypt recorded a 4 per cent drop in their occupancy levels to 53 per cent in June over the same period in 2013, data by research firm STR Global showed. However, ADR was up 8 per cent to EGP492, and as a result, RevPAR rose 4 per cent to EGP261.

@http://gulfnews.com/business/tourism/outbound-travel-to-egypt-from-uae-picks-up-in-2014-1.1372696?utm_content=1.1372696&utm_medium=RSS&utm_source=Feeds&utm_campaign=Outbound_travel_to_Egypt_from_UAE_picks_up_in_2014&localLinksEnabled=false&utm_term=Business_RSS_feed