By Akram Medhat
Hesham El-Demery, head of the Egyptian Tourism Promotion Authority, met with Ukraine's Ambassador to Cairo, Hennadii Latii, to discuss ways of cooperation to boost tourism. He reviewed the discussions held in his meetings with tour operators in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, on the authority's strategies for winter 2017/2018, and discussed ways of cooperating with them in the coming period regarding the study and presentation of the current mechanism of the joint campaigns system and the flight incentive program, stressing the great importance Egypt attaches to Ukrainian tourists.
El-Demery revealed that Ukraine recorded its highest number of tourist arrivals since the promotion of the Egyptian tourism product began there, this year, with about 400,000 Ukrainian tourists arriving by the end of last August, adding that Ukraine is one of the markets whose tourist flow to Egypt did not stop during the past period.
The two sides also discussed the travel advice issued by the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry urging its citizens to exercise caution in some places in Egypt. The ambassador said there are efforts between the Egyptian and Ukrainian governments to amend that advice, especially given the stability now prevailing in Egypt's various tourist destinations, expressing his optimism that it will be amended soon and noting that, despite the advice, it has not affected tourist traffic from his country to Egypt.
For his part, El-Demery said he will travel next week to the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, to take part in the UITM fair from October 4 to 7, where he will meet tour operators and present the diversity of the Egyptian tourist destination and the different and new types of tourism that can be offered to Ukrainian tourists, such as the Holy Family journey, conference tourism, medical tourism and cultural tourism.
El-Demery expected the number of tourists from Ukraine to double in the coming period, as indicators announced by tour operators there show an increase in winter bookings of between 20% and 30% compared with the same period last year.
On another note, El-Demery said he will make a short visit to the Czech Republic before taking part in the UITM fair in Kyiv, holding a series of professional and media meetings at the Egyptian Embassy, where he will meet a group of tour operators to follow up on the situation in the Czech tourism market and how to remove any obstacles to increasing tourist arrivals from it, especially as the Czech market is a promising and growing one.
