Dr. Nader El Beblawy, head of the Chamber of Travel and Tourism Companies and Agencies, met Imad Hijazin, Jordan's Minister of Tourism and Antiquities, during his visit to Egypt. The meeting discussed ways to strengthen tourism cooperation between the two countries and the private sector's role in preparing and implementing joint tourism programs and products, helping to attract more tourist arrivals to Egypt and Jordan.
El Beblawy praised the Jordanian tourism minister's role in achieving a tourism boom in Jordan and his efforts to boost tourism growth in the Kingdom, noting that the tourism sector has great opportunities to strengthen cooperation through the complementarity of the two countries' tourism, archaeological and spiritual assets.
He stressed the importance of the proposals put forward during the meeting between Egypt's Minister of Tourism and Antiquities Sherif Fathy and his Jordanian counterpart to strengthen tourism cooperation between the two countries, which open new horizons for the Egyptian and Jordanian private sectors to design joint tour programs and market them in international markets.
The chamber head explained that one of the main areas of cooperation proposed is preparing joint Egyptian-Jordanian tour programs combining tourist, archaeological and spiritual destinations in both countries, allowing tourists to visit more than one destination in a single trip and making use of the air connectivity between Egypt and Jordan and the short distance between them.
El Beblawy said these programs could particularly target long-haul markets, led by the Far East and Latin America, stressing that offering a joint tourism product gives the region a greater competitive advantage and allows it to reach new segments of tourists.
He stressed that Egyptian and Jordanian travel companies have extensive experience that can be built on in this field, emphasizing the importance of involving the private sector of both countries in preparing, designing and marketing these programs to ensure they become real tourism products that can be implemented and marketed in target markets.
El Beblawy noted that religious and spiritual tourism is one of the most important areas that could see broad cooperation between Egypt and Jordan, given the religious and historical sites of global importance to hundreds of millions of people around the world in both countries.
He explained that the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan is preparing to celebrate in 2030 the 2,000th anniversary of the baptism of Jesus Christ at the Baptism Site (Al Maghtas) on the Jordan River, a religious and tourism occasion of global importance for which the Kingdom has begun preparing by forming a national committee with the participation of official bodies, leaders and the churches concerned.
He stressed that the Baptism Site is one of the most important Christian religious sites in the region and holds a global spiritual standing, making it a key element that can be built on in designing and marketing joint spiritual tour programs between Egypt and Jordan.
He explained that the birth, baptism and resurrection of Jesus Christ are key milestones of great spiritual significance for Christians around the world, and can be built on to design integrated tour programs linking religious and historical sites in Egypt and Jordan.
He noted that Egypt has an important advantage in this field through the Holy Family Trail in Egypt, with its religious, historical and tourism value, which opens the way to preparing joint programs combining the Baptism Site in Jordan and the Holy Family Trail in Egypt, as well as a number of important Christian and archaeological sites in both countries.
He added that this type of program could become an integrated global tourism product targeting Christian markets around the world through a single trip combining Egypt and Jordan, noting that Egyptian-Jordanian tourism cooperation is an important model of integration between two countries with complementary tourism, archaeological and spiritual assets. He stressed that the interest of both countries requires working to attract new markets through joint tourism products rather than competition, increasing the appeal of the region as a whole to international tourists.
El Beblawy affirmed that the Chamber of Travel and Tourism Companies and Agencies welcomes any steps that would strengthen cooperation between Egyptian and Jordanian travel companies, and will support efforts to turn what has been proposed at the government level into real tourism programs and products that can be marketed and implemented.
