Delegation of Chinese tour operators visits Cairo

Delegation of Chinese tour operators visits Cairo

CAIRO: A Chinese delegation of 400 tour operators and media figures arrived in Cairo to inspect tourist attractions and potentials in Egypt’s unchartered travel destination, head of the international tourism sector at the Tourism Promotion Authority Ahmed Shoukry told The Cairo Post Wednesday.

Shoukry said the visit “would pave the way to boost the number of Chinese tourists to Egypt, which has sharply decreased since the January 25 Revolution and the consequent security lapses.”

An estimated 122,000 Chinese tourists visited Egypt in 2010 while the number dropped to 42,000 in 2011 and 38,000 in 2012, according to the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS), Egypt’s official statistical agency.

During a 4-day visit to China in December, President Sisi and the Egyptian Minister of Trade Mounir Fakhry Abdel Nour met with Chinese tourism officials and discussed ways to increase number of Chinese tourists visiting Egypt, according to Youm7.

During the meeting with Sisi, Chinese Minister of Tourism Li Jinzao said that his country is looking forward to strengthen tourist cooperation with Egypt and called on the Egyptian authorities to “increase the number of direct flights between Egypt and Chinese provinces and to develop new measures to facilitate obtaining an entry visa to Egypt.”

The Chinese delegation is scheduled to conduct inspection visits to Egypt’s touristic destinations of Luxor, Aswan, Abu Simbel and the Red Sea coastal cities, Shoukry said.

Manial Palace to reopen in mid-Februar

Manial Palace to reopen in mid-Februar

@Nevine El-Aref , Tuesday 23 Dec 2014

At the southern tip of Roda Island stands Manial Palace, an exquisite example of early 20th century architecture.

Built in 1901 by Prince Mohamed Ali, the son of Khedive Tawfiq, it was an attempt to revive the Islamic architectural style in opposition to the European style commonly adopted for the royal family's palaces.

Some 50 labourers, archaeologists and cultivation experts are hard at work to meet the deadline. The official reopening is in mid-February after ten years of restoration.

In 2005, the Ministry of Antiquities started restoration work on the palace, which includes removing of the encroachments made on the palace gardens since early 1960s by the Egyptian General Organisation for Tourism and Hotels (EGOTH) which transformed the palace garden into a hotel.

It also includes the consolidation and re-erection of the gypsum false ceiling, constructed in 1945 to reduce the weighting load of the large copper chandelier on the original ceiling of the throne hall. This ceiling collapsed in 2004.

Fine restoration work to all decorative elements at the palace has been also executed as well as the development of the palace's galleries, laboratories and garden.

Today, Minister of Antiquities Mamdouh Eldamaty embarked on an inspection tour around the palace to check upon the work being achieved and to solve any problems that could stand against the palace official opening.

During the tour Eldamaty told Ahram Online that the palace regained its original look and it would be open in mid-February which coincide with the centennial of Khedive Abbas Helmy II's leaving Egypt's throne.

During the opening ceremony, said Eldamaty, a lecture is to be held about Khedive Abbas Helmy II in an attempt to honour his efforts to develop Egypt because during his reign he ordered the construction of the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir, the Graeco-Roman Museum in Alexandria and the Museum of Islamic Arts in Babul Khalq in downtown Cairo.

Manial Palace is a huge palace with a rare botanical garden, exquisite halls and several detached buildings, all bearing a blend of Fatimid and Mameluke styles tinged with Ottoman elements, and drawing also on Persian, Andalusian, Syrian, and Moroccan taste.

www.egypt.travel 

Shifting sands: Egypt’s Sisi goes all out on China visit

Shifting sands: Egypt’s Sisi goes all out on China visit

Abdallah Schleifer

These days, everything seems to be going President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s way. The White House appears to have finally abandoned its protracted, low key cold war with post–Mursi and anti-Muslim Brotherhood Egypt. After a conspicuous absence of nearly a-year-and-a-half, an American ambassador - R Stephen Beecroft - has finally taken up residence in Cairo.

Poor Ambassador Beecroft. His last posting was Iraq (2012-2014); so he has been moved from one major failure of American policy in the region to another. It is a less dramatic failure but a failure nevertheless. Also, the American Apache fighter helicopters, which were to have been delivered more than a year ago but are only being delivered now, are of critical importance in combating the extremist insurgencies in Sinai and those insurgents who occasionally stray into Egypt from Libya
But none of that has deterred President Sisi from further pursuing his strategic relationship with China, which has been singled out as a threat to America by the still influential Neo Cons who are no doubt overjoyed to see the Obama administration over the past few years taking up the banner of confrontation with China and Russia.
Strategic partnership

China has happily signed up to this relationship, and among the many agreements struck in China this past week during Sisi’s four day visit was one raising bilateral ties to a “strategic partnership.” Significant Chinese investment in Egypt is a major component of the new partnership. The focus will be on infrastructure, railways, development of ports and the generation of energy - in particular sustainable energy which is most relevant since China is now a leading manufacturer of solar energy panels and related solar systems.

In America, low-cost Chinese solar panels have taken the market and resulted in the near collapse of American solar panel companies. But Egypt constitutes such a large market and far more desperately needs to shift over to solar power than America, where extensive fracking of shale gas and oil deposits has catapulted America to become one of the highest energy producers. Thus it would make far more sense for Egypt to induce Chinese solar manufacturers to invest in factories building solar panels, rather than in exporting panels to Egypt. More immediately the two countries signed a memorandum to establish a joint laboratory for renewable energy.

There is a significant imbalance of trade between China and Egypt, so as part of the new strategic partnership China’s President Xi Jinping declared this week that the government would encourage the Chinese business community (which includes its extensive industrial sector) to increase imports from Egypt.
 

Tourism ties

During the tour, Sisi did not pass up the opportunity to ask the major Chinese tourism operators to encourage more Chinese tourists to visit Egypt. If there is serious follow up on the part of the Chinese (and given the enthusiasm they have expressed for this strategic partnership which they have entered into with only a few other countries, there is no reason to assume they will not do so), this would have an immediate impact on the Egyptian economy. The number of tourists visiting Egypt declined from 14.7 million in 2010 to 9.5 million in 2013. The industry is in dire straits. As for China, it is the world’s largest tourist export market. 130 million Chinese now go abroad and if there is only a 10 percent increase over whatever number of Chinese tourists are now visiting Egypt that would more than double Egypt’s revenue from tourism and surpass 2010 which was Egypt’s best year.

But the most significant political aspect is that the Chinese-Egyptian strategic partnership is to activate a joint committee for cooperation in defense affairs. That means communication between military colleges and institutes, and increased cooperation in the fight against terrorism, organized crime, cross border crime and electronic crime. But most of all it will mean the sale of Chinese manufactured weaponry which is extensive in range and attractively priced.

Sisi is committed to diversifying the source of arms, so it is not exposed to threats by a sole supplier - the United States – which could use the threat of suddenly cutting off the supply of arms and maintenance to Egypt in an attempt to get Egypt to toe the American political line. This commitment was demonstrated by the arms deal signed earlier this year with Russia and the certainty that there will be new and event more extensive deals with the Chinese in the near future.

@http://english.alarabiya.net/en/views/news/world/2014/12/26/Shifting-sands-Egypt-s-Sisi-goes-all-out-on-China-visit.html