Conference to promote religious tourism to kick off in Sinai

CAIRO – 27 September 2017: An international conference on religious tourism will be held on Thursday in the Egyptian cities of Sharm El-Sheikh and St. Catherine from September 28 to 30.

The conference will be attended by Minister of Religious Endowments Dr. Mohamed Mokhtar Gomaa, Minister of Antiquities Khaled El-Enany, Minister of Tourism Yahya Rashed, head of Members of Parliament’s Religious Affairs Committee chaired by Dr. Osama Al-Abd, parliamentarian of South Sinai, and representatives of religious institutions of Al-Azhar, Dar al-Iftta and the Church.

The conference will be held under the title "Sinai: The Forum of divine religions.. Let's pray together" instead of “Sinai as the capital of religious tourism."

Earlier, the Minister of Antiquities Khaled El-Anany attended a press conference on Monday, September 20, about the religious conference.

On the sidelines of the conference, the Global Center for Islamic Culture will be opened in Al-Sahaba (companions) mosque in Sharm El-Sheikh.

“Sinai: The Capital of Religious Tourism” aims to combat and denounce terrorism and extremism by highlighting Egypt’s role as a site for religious heritage since the Abrahamic times.

The conference is an important chance for a dialogue of civilizations, as key religious figures from different countries will attend.

On the sidelines of the conference, the celebration of the third session of the Religions Forum, “Here we pray together,” will be held under the auspices of UNESCO.

South Sinai Governor Khaled Fouda further stressed that Sharm El-Sheikh has become an attractive venue for tourism and international conferences.

Sharm El -Sheikh is hosting an international youth conference in October and an international conference on telecommunications by the beginning of 2018, according to Fouda.

“Tourism gets sick, but does not die,” Fouda added, referring to efforts taking place in the German and Italian markets to revive tourist inflows to Egypt.