Mubarak's Directives to promote Egypt's tourism
Egypt, Politics, 1/22/2000

President Hosni Mubarak, when following up government strategies and policies in several sectors starting with the tourism today, presented a future vision of these sectors in the coming stages.

Minister of Information Safwat Al Sherif, following a meeting on Thursday by President Mubarak with Prime Minister Atef Ebeid and the Ministers of tourism, transport and information, said that President Mubarak listened to the strategy and policy of the tourism sector in Egypt which deals with future possibilities based on political stability enjoyed by Egypt and elements of peace and tourist infrastructure and hotel development which is being carried out by the private sector.

President Mubarak had several directives after listening to a report on tourist affairs.

President Mubarak reviewed tourism revenues according to reports from 1982 to 1993 and up to 1999 and its contribution in realizing a balance in the trade balance and what it adds to the revenue of national economy and the contribution of the tourist sector in facing the deficit in the trade balance, which reaches about 25 per cent, and providing about 2.2 million new job opportunities and also contributing to the revenues of the public treasury from taxes and indirect dues, Al Sherif said.

President Mubarak was briefed on future plans in the coming five years from the year 2000 up to the year 2005 which aim at doubling the number of visitors and tourists to Egypt and doubling tourist nights and realizing an increase which reaches about 85 per cent in the revenues and returns of tourism and raise the accommodation capacity of tourist hotels from 105,000 to 186,000 rooms.

Al Sherif further said that the goal, as regards tourist nights in future plans, is to raise he number of nights from 35 million tourist nights to 66 million tourist nights.

President Mubarak also discussed means of realizing these strategies and the goals which were outlined by the Minister of Tourism,The Minister of Information added.

President Mubarak gave assignments to the government and directives regarding tourist work as follows:

First: To complete the development of services at airports and to facilitate arrival and departure at the airports of Cairo Hurghada, Sharm Al Sheikh and Luxor.

An urgent development of these services should begin at once and several outlets for arrival and departure should be provided in order to eliminate crowding at some of these airports.

Second: To permit international airlines to arrange direct and regular flights from world capitals to tourist areas and also to give facilities to charter flights for tourist transport from world capitals to tourist areas directly without passing through Cairo.

Third: To develop the service of tourist transport and the transport of passengers on internal regular flights by increasing the capacity of the national carrier and commitment to fixed schedules for internal transport with a flying capacity which cannot be changed in addition to studying the possibility of setting up an airline company to take care of flights for the internal area, either from among the existing private sector companies or through participation with the national carrier.

Fourth: To solve the problems of ground services in a manner which raises the level of these services and eases dealing with the various international companies.

As regards the building of new airports in crowded areas, President Mubarak gave an assignment to the Prime Minister and the Ministry of transport to draw up a map of existing and new airports to meet the needs of tourist areas, distances and roads which link between them and these areas in order to draw up a plan to develop existing airports and optimum use of them and to define airports which need to be developed in order to be able to operate efficiently to serve the tourist movement in addition to defining tourist areas which need the building of new airports. This could be offered under the BOT system.

President Mubarak underlined the importance of keeping away from areas in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aqba in order to give an opportunity for tourist development.

In the field of the development of Nile tourism, President Mubarak asked that a study be made of the situation as regards issuing new licenses and the relationship of this with the development of existing quays, taking into consideration the elements of safety and the rules of environment.

In the field of the development of maritime tourism, President Mubarak asked for a review of dues of entry and dues of tourist boats in the ports of the Mediterranean and submit proposals in the light of comparative and competitive prices in the ports of countries overlooking the Mediterranean.

As regards the various control agencies -- ministries and the various sectors which oversee institutions operating in the tourist sector represented in hotels and tourist towns (there are 17 agencies), President Mubarak asked the Prime Minister to study unifying the control agencies in one agency to be authorized by the various authorities and work under the umbrella of the Ministry of Tourism.

Minister of Information Safwat Al Sherif said President Mubarak reviewed guidelines governing the allocation of land in order to realize an expansion in the base of investment in tourist areas in the new and promising areas.

Al Sherif said that President Mubarak issued his directives in the field of environment improvement that local councils and governorates concentrate on cleanliness and orderly appearance in important tourist centers giving special priority to Cairo considering that it is the gate of international tourism coming to Egypt.

In the light of the meeting of President Mubarak after two weeks, the President will call the higher tourist council to meet to discuss future policies and strategies, Al Sherif expounded.

President Mubarak defined the goals of polices and development saying that they should double tourist income in foreign currency and provide about 800,000 new job opportunities to raise the number of direct and indirect labor in the tourist sector.

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