By Akram Medhat
Alexandria will host a World Tourism Day celebration next Saturday, September 30, organized by Alexandra Dive under the auspices of the Ministry of Tourism, the Egyptian Tourism Promotion Authority and the Governor of Alexandria, Dr. Mohamed Sultan. A number of foreign tourists and VIPs, including ministers and ambassadors, will be hosted, in addition to artists, public figures and international and local media. The day is celebrated worldwide on September 27 every year.
In this context, Dr. Ashraf Sabry of Alexandra Dive, the organizer of the celebration, said it is scheduled to start at noon next Saturday from the Citadel of Qaitbay and aims to boost tourism and highlight the importance of Alexandria's underwater antiquities, noting that 50 young men and women from the Faculty of Tourism and Hotels at Alexandria University were carefully selected to take part in the event.
He explained that the celebration will shed light on the sunken city of Alexandria, "Cleopatra", as well as the buried antiquities recently discovered at the bottom of the Mediterranean.
He revealed that a huge procession for Queen Cleopatra, in her Pharaonic costume amid her entourage, will be organized over a distance of 500 meters on the Alexandria Corniche, from the Citadel of Qaitbay to the diving center in Alexandria's Eastern Harbor. The procession will be accompanied by a number of international media outlets paying great attention to the event, such as Discovery Channel and National Geographic, among others, in addition to a number of local channels, and Alexandria's residents will also be able to watch the event. The event will conclude with a fireworks display by the Egyptian Navy on the Alexandria Corniche.
Sabry added that the first diving center in Alexandria has been launched to play a major role in promoting diving tourism in the Bride of the Mediterranean and to raise awareness in the local and international community of the existence of two sunken cities dating back to the Pharaonic and Roman eras at the bottom of the Eastern Harbor of Alexandria Governorate in the Mediterranean, noting that the city has a range of assets that make it an important tourist destination, as it was once the capital of tourism and must return to its former standing.
