Short visit by Egypt’s Minister of Tourism and Antiquities to Armenian capital, Yerevan

CAIRO – 15 September 2020: On his way to the Georgian capital Tbilisi to attend the 112th session of the Executive Council of the World Tourism Organization, which will start its activities on Wednesday September 16, Egypt’s Minister of Tourism & Antiquities Khaled el-Anani, stopped in the Armenian capital Yerevan, Where Ambassador Bahaa Desouky, Ambassador of Egypt to Armenia, organized a meeting for the minister with more than 30 officials of the major tour operators and tourism companies, in the presence of representatives of the media and news agencies.

This visit came in light of the resumption of flights between Armenia and Egypt, starting Thursday, September 17th.

During the meeting, Anani began his speech by highlighting the distinguished political relations between the two countries and the recent visit of the Armenian Foreign Minister to Egypt.

The minister also reviewed the precautionary and preventive measures and health safety controls that Egypt has taken, which are applied in Egyptian tourist and hotel facilities, museums and archaeological sites to ensure the health safety of tourists, citizens and workers in the tourism sector, after resuming inbound tourism to Egypt, starting from the first of last July.

Anani also referred to the resumption of the cultural tourism movement in Egypt since the beginning of September 2020, expressing his optimism about its success, such as the remarkable success achieved by resuming tourism in coastal cities, which was reflected in the positive indicators in the number of tourists coming to Egypt since the resumption of the tourism movement, pointing out that the tourist delegations that arrived in the governorates of South Sinai and the Red Sea reached more than 200,000 tourists and returned to their countries after the end of their tourism programs and their enjoyment of the picturesque beaches of Egypt and its warm and sunny weather.

Furthermore, Anani also spoke about the incentives granted by the Egyptian state to encourage companies and international tour operators to organize trips to the Egyptian tourist governorates, noting that the idea of creating new tourism patterns to integrate cultural tourism with beach tourism by organizing tourism programs that combine visits to Hurghada and Sharm el-Sheikh and between Luxor, Aswan and Cairo, enabling tourists to see the Egyptian antiquities and learn about the ancient Egyptian civilization, in addition to enjoying the picturesque beaches of Egypt, noting that the ministry is keen in its plan to integrate coastal tourism with the cultural tourism product, and to make Egyptian tourist destinations of all kinds available to tourists by linking the shores of the Red Sea to archaeological sites in the Nile Valley and in Upper Egypt.

Moreover, the minister indicated that an archeology museum will soon be opened in Sharm El-Sheikh. This is in addition to the Antiquities Museum in Hurghada, which was inaugurated last February as the first archeology museum in the Red Sea.

For their part, tour operators and tourism companies praised the precautionary measures and health safety controls taken by the Egyptian government to resume tourism and also with the facilities provided by the Egyptian government to them to encourage inbound tourism to Egypt, emphasizing that Egypt has become the first tourist destination for Armenian citizens.