Tourism minister: Egypt's economy witnesses major tourism boom

CAIRO - 22 June 2017: Tourism Minister Yehia Rashid said that Egypt's economy will witness a major tourism boom.

Speaking to reporters on Thursday, the minister said that the Egyptian tourism promotion campaign in Arab countries was "very successful", expecting the number of Arab tourists who visited Egypt to increase.

As for offices of the Tourism Promotion Authority (TPA) abroad, the minister said that no new offices will be closed, adding however, the closure of several offices abroad was in line with the State's directives to reduce the number of TPA offices abroad to lower costs.

He underlined that his ministry is currently discussing upgrading sleeper trains to Luxor city to help increase the number of tourist nights per year to one million.

Egypt, in cooperation with the Vatican, will host an international conference on the Holy Family Route in Egypt in July, the minister said.

Earlier, the tourism minister had talks with Monsignor Liberio Andreatta, the head of the Vatican agency for pilgrims, on promoting the Holy Family Route in Egypt.