Five-year Plan to boost tourism

The Higher Tourism Council held a meeting on Sunday under Prime Minister Atef Ebeid.

Tourism Minister Mamdouh El-Beltagui said that Ebeid lauded the contribution of the tourism sector to GDP and its positive role in redressing the trade balance and creating job opportunities for thousands of youths.

Egypt had to maximize benefit from the tourist sector, especially with Egypt having a long experience and ability to compete in this field.

Atef Ebeid expounded that Egyptian tourism provided the treasury with big revenues as a result of the taxes and customs fees coming from the tourism sector as well as other sectors benefiting from tourist activity.

Answering a question on the achievements of the tourist sector, he cited the statistics of the Central Bank of Egypt which revealed that about 5.5 million tourists visited Egypt last year with a total revenues of $ 4.3 billion, i.e.LE 17 billion.

He added that there is a plan to increase the number of tourists to 9.5 million visitors until 2005 and get $ 10 billion.