French tourist traffic to Egypt improving

Egyptian Tourism Minister Mamdouh El-Beltagui and his French counterpart Jacques Brunuex Thursday co-opened the Egyptian pavilion at a major travel fair where an estimated 150 countries are participating.

Beltagui told an opening ceremony that the pavilion aims at reactivating French tourism to Egypt to its levels before the September 11 attacks in New York and Washington.

He told MENA that tourism to Egypt was on its way to recover. Egyptian travel industry has felt the impact of the aftermath of the September 11 assaults in the US.

The Minister added that the tourist arrivals to Egypt in February rose to 88.2 percent of its levels compared to February, 2001.

Brunuex told the same ceremony that there was a rising demand for Egypt as a tourist destination.

France is extremely happy that the tourist traffic to Egypt is returning to normal because Egypt figures prominently among tourist destinations for the French, said the Minister.

He added that tourism was a vital economic sector not only to Egypt but to the world as a whole.