Orascom Pyramids has announced the completion of the design and installation of modern, advanced kiosks for selling souvenirs inside the visit area of the Giza Pyramids, in line with the site's civilizational and archaeological character, along with setting clear operating mechanisms in cooperation with Giza Governorate.
Dr. Ahmed El-Ansary, Governor of Giza, on his first visit to the development project of the Pyramids archaeological area since taking office, handed over 20 well-designed kiosks dedicated to selling souvenirs and handicrafts to vendors in the visit area of the Giza Pyramids, as part of the comprehensive development works underway in the area.
Orascom Pyramids explained that the operating mechanism includes setting the rental value of each kiosk at EGP 6,000 a year per vendor, in addition to EGP 10,000 as a deposit for each kiosk.
A clear set of regulations has also been posted inside the visit area to organize sales and ensure a civilized tourist experience befitting the historical standing of the Pyramids area, helping improve the level of services provided to visitors. The Tourism and Antiquities Police plays a key role in monitoring the application of the approved regulations, in coordination with Giza Governorate and Orascom Pyramids, ensuring compliance with the rules and discipline inside the area.
This comes as part of the protocol signed between Orascom Pyramids Projects and the Supreme Council of Antiquities, and in the context of the comprehensive development works in the visit area of the Giza Pyramids plateau.
Dr. Ahmed El-Ansary stressed the governorate's keenness to establish means of displaying and selling these products inside the archaeological area as part of its cultural attractions, and to encourage craftspeople and vendors from the surrounding areas by supporting this industry and making it part of the development system of the Giza Pyramids destination, taking into account community integration and improving the visitor experience, supporting the vendors in the area and maintaining the stability of their situation, and working to develop their skills and raise their efficiency in line with the new civilized look of the visit area.
The governor stated that 57 vendors are to be placed in these kiosks, forming a civilized market keeping pace with the scale of development the destination is seeing, designed by Orascom Pyramids, which manages and operates the site, along with setting mechanisms to regulate operations and the sale of products, ensuring benefits for vendors and tourists on the one hand, and modernizing the system with due regard for the civilized appearance of the world's most important tourist attraction on the other.
The governor was keen to talk to the vendors and urge them to maintain the system and engage positively with it to create an attractive image for visitors to the area. He also listened to their proposals on increasing events to promote their products, directing the deputy governor to coordinate with Orascom Pyramids to hold a crafts and handiwork exhibition after the Eid Al-Fitr holiday.
After the handover ceremony, the governor toured to follow up on the regular reception of tourist groups and tour routes, and inspected the visit stations and service areas, surveying the opinions of a number of visitors on the development works, who confirmed the value of these works and the scale of transformation in the reception and leisure system inside the destination, which has ended the negative practices they had heard about or suffered from on previous visits.
The governor was accompanied on the tour by Hend Abdel Halim, Deputy Governor; Eng. Amr Gazarin, Chairman of Orascom Pyramids; Mr. Wael Shaaban, Head of the Central Department of the Governor's Office; and Azza Wahdan, Director of the Tourism Department, according to the official page of Giza Governorate on Facebook.
