By Akram Medhat
Minister of Tourism Yehia Rashed met with Stéphane Romatet, France's ambassador to Cairo, to discuss ways of cooperation between the two countries in promoting travel to Egypt. The two sides discussed the minister's participation in the Top Resa professional tourism fair in Paris, scheduled to begin tomorrow and run until September 28.
The French ambassador stated that one of his priorities is to work on improving Egypt's image in France in order to bring French tourism back to the country, expecting an increase in inbound tourism to the Egyptian destination, especially as many tour operators and travel companies in France confirmed during his meetings with them that there is strong demand from the French for Egypt. He revealed that bookings for the coming winter season are fully booked.
The French ambassador expressed his full readiness to cooperate with the ministry to boost French tourism to Egypt, pointing to the French people's passion for Egyptian civilization and noting that the French have a great interest in the cultural tourism product and the archaeological sites they are keen to visit in Egypt. He also pointed to the government's efforts to secure tourist areas, which confirms the safety of the Egyptian destination for the French people.
For his part, Yehia Rashed proposed inviting a group of French journalists and media professionals to visit tourist and archaeological sites in Cairo, Sharm El-Sheikh and other Egyptian cities to convey a positive image to the French people, in addition to holding joint events between the two countries, including festivals and international competitions, and inviting stars from various fields to them to improve the country's image.
The talks touched on the importance of increasing direct flights between the two countries. The minister reviewed the main features of the Ministry of Tourism's program to incentivize scheduled, low-cost and charter flights, which aims to increase both tourist traffic and state revenues. It was agreed to invite the owners of French airlines to a roundtable to discuss the flight incentive program and ways of cooperating with them in this field.
Proposal to Link Archaeological Sites by Cable Car
The French ambassador also proposed several areas of cooperation in developing archaeological sites, including upgrading the Sound and Light show at the Pyramids area and a project to link some archaeological sites with one another, such as connecting the Grand Egyptian Museum to the Pyramids area by "cable car" and linking Karnak to the Valley of the Kings, to make it easier for tourists to visit these sites. He noted that many French companies have expressed a desire to cooperate with the Egyptian government on developing archaeological sites.
The ambassador proposed making use of the 150th anniversary of the founding of the Suez Canal, which falls next year, as a theme for promoting Egypt in France during 2018, given the importance of this historic event for the French people.
According to tourism statistics obtained exclusively by "Travel Yalla News", French tourist arrivals to Egypt reached about 96,000 in the first eight months of the current year, 2017, up 42% from the same period last year, and they spent about one million tourist nights, an increase of 157%.
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