Egyptian papyrus ranked in top 10 tourist items for Chinese

CAIRO - 29 June 2017: The Chinese Tourism Authority has revealed the selection of preferred tourist goods displayed at the seventh international festival of “Dunhuang and the Silk Road”, organized by the China Tourism Authority in Lanzhou City. The authority revealed that the papyrus is one of the ten most popular tourist goods among the Chinese.

The list of the ten most popular tourist items include papyrus, colorful figurines from Dunhuang, artworks of clay statues of soldiers, and horses from the tomb of Emperor Qin Shi Huang and Russian dolls.

A report released by the official Chinese news agency Xinhua on Tuesday stated that "The Sun Festival in Chengdu, China last February displayed ancient Egyptian antiquities, a series of pyramids-colored lanterns, the mask of King Tutankhamen, desert oases, and art shows under the themes of the Pharaohs and Cleopatra." The artifacts were seen by a large number of Chinese people. The exhibitions also included papyrus paintings, archeological discovery tools and pharaonic masks.

Xinhua’s news agency also stated that Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Morocco and Tunisia were among the most important new tourist destinations for Chinese tourists during the traditional Chinese New Year. Thanks to the facilitation of visa applications or the implementation of the exemption policy, the Chinese have made those destinations their priority.

The tourism report issued during the Spring Festival of 2017, and the demand for tourist destinations report issued by the China Tourism Research Corporation and the Xixheng Tourism Group jointly reported that Egypt and the United Arab Emirates ranked second and ninth respectively in the list of emerging foreign tourist destinations during the 2017 Spring Festival holiday.

The latest travel report for the 2017 Spring Festival of China's famous tourism network Tonneau showed that Morocco and Tunisia occupied the first and second place respectively in the list of the top ten countries in terms of growth rate of Chinese tourists.

The report explained that preferential visa policies are one of the most important incentives for Chinese to travel to foreign countries. Chinese tourists can travel to 60 countries and regions without a visa or obtain them upon arrival at the border. The reasons for the rise of tourism to the Middle East are the visa exemption policy, the ancient Arab culture, the unique Islamic history, and the geographical characteristics of the Middle East.