French Amb.: Egypt is a major tourist destination for French tourists

CAIRO - 10 December 2024: Egyptian Minister of Tourism and Antiquities Sherif Fathy, met at the ministry's headquarters in the New Administrative Capital with Ambassador Eric Chevalier, the French Ambassador to Cairo, and his accompanying delegation, to discuss ways to enhance further cooperation between Egypt and France in the field of tourism and antiquities, mechanisms to boost more incoming tourism to Egypt from France during the coming period, and follow up on ongoing archaeological projects between the two countries.

 

The Minister began the meeting by welcoming the Ambassador and his accompanying delegation, appreciating the depth of the strategic and historical relations between Egypt and France.

 

The Minister reviewed the indicators of incoming tourism to Egypt during the current year, which is witnessing an increase in the number of tourists and tourist nights, noting that Egypt is expected to achieve about 15.3 million tourists by the end of this year, thus bringing the rates of incoming tourism to what they were before the Corona virus pandemic, noting the volume of incoming tourism from France to Egypt, especially in light of the French market being one of the main and targeted tourism markets.

 

The Minister spoke about the significant development witnessed by the infrastructure in Egypt, including roads, bridges, airports and new cities, which in turn serves the tourism industry and facilitates access to various tourist destinations in Egypt and links them together, pointing to what has been achieved in this regard in the North Coast region.

 

He added that preparations are underway to develop integrated strategic plans (Master plans) for tourist destinations, including the North Coast and the area between Sphinx International Airport and the Saqqara Pyramid area, which also includes the Giza Pyramids and the Grand Egyptian Museum, as part of the work plan to attract investments to it and establish hotels, entertainment and commercial places in it.

 

Sherif Fathy also reviewed the vision of the ministry's current work strategy, which is based on highlighting the tourism diversity that Egypt enjoys in the unparalleled tourism styles and products in the world, so that the vision reflects this diversity to make Egypt the most diverse tourist destination in the world.

 

He explained that work is underway to create new tourism products and develop existing products to enable their inclusion in cooperation with tour operators in various tourism programs, noting that these products have been identified and work teams have been formed in the ministry that specialize in each product separately, pointing to the development of the Nile tourism product, especially the long Nile cruises that are organized from Cairo to Aswan, which comes in light of the French tourist's passion and interest in the cultural tourism product.

 

The Minister also spoke about the Grand Egyptian Museum and the recent trial operation and the ongoing preparations for its official opening ceremony, in addition to the latest developments in the Giza Pyramids development project, which includes developing many tourist services and a recreation area designated for camels and horses, referring to the national program recently launched by the Ministry in cooperation with the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation to provide proper health care for horses, camels and pets in archaeological areas and in coordination with some civil society associations concerned with animal welfare.

 

For his part, the Ambassador indicated that Egypt is a major tourist destination for French tourists, especially in light of their passion for cultural tourism products, noting that French tourists are also interested in other products, including ecotourism, spiritual tourism and medical tourism.

 

The ambassador pointed out that there are 48 French archaeological missions working in Egypt in the fields of restoration and excavations, which have resulted in many successful archaeological projects, including the development and opening of the open museum in Karnak, which improves the tourist experience in the temple, the development of the lighting system in the tombs of Deir el-Medina in Luxor, and the opening of the exhibition of the tomb of Hesy-Ra at the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir after its restoration, among others.

 

The ambassador explained that Egypt is a major destination for French investment in the field of hotels and that there are many French investment companies in Egypt working in this field, expressing his optimism that the coming period will witness more of these investments.