The Egyptian Tourism Federation announced that an agreement has been reached to begin activating joint Egyptian-Turkish cooperation in tourism, covering several tourism areas, foremost among them tourism investment, especially in hotels, as well as the exchange of expertise, training and skilled labour.
This came in a report received by Hossam El-Shaer, Chairman of the Egyptian Tourism Federation, on the visit of a high-level Turkish tourism and economic delegation to the federation's headquarters. The visit comes as both sides capitalize on the major positive development in Egyptian-Turkish relations and the recent successful visit by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to Cairo, which included several meetings attended by President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and the Turkish President, during which it was agreed to develop joint relations in several fields, including tourism.
Hala El-Khatib, Executive Director of the Egyptian Tourism Federation, prepared a detailed report submitted to Chairman Hossam El-Shaer on the Turkish delegation's visit to the federation, including the discussions and proposals reached, so that appropriate decisions can be taken.
The Turkish delegation visited the federation's headquarters and was received by Hala El-Khatib, the federation's Executive Director. The delegation was headed by Commercial Counsellor Hakan Atay, accompanying a high-level delegation from various Turkish service sectors, including tourism and travel services, educational services, entertainment and cultural services, port management, ground services, business and technical consultancy services in the construction sector, software and information technology services, passenger and cargo transport, and logistics services.
The Turkish delegation reviewed ways of cooperating in the fields they work in through the Turkish Services Exporters Association, stressing that, in light of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's visit to Egypt, they are confident of opening new doors and avenues of cooperation in tourism, trade, logistics and professional exchange and technological development.
For her part, Hala El-Khatib explained the federation's vision and role in the development witnessed by Egypt's tourism sector recently and the future plan for 2030, which targets 30 million tourists for Egypt, and stressed the keenness of the federation's board, chaired by Hossam El-Shaer, to support tourism cooperation with Turkey in line with the strong relations between the two countries and the development of their joint relations.
The Turkish side also presented the development of Turkey's tourism sector, the achievements of this sector in previous years and what Turkey hopes to reach in the near future in terms of the numbers and growth of tourist flows, stressing that there are Turkish tourism investments on Egyptian soil in Sharm El-Sheikh and Hurghada and that they hope to increase investment and tourism cooperation with Egypt. Regarding professional cooperation, they expressed their desire for professional exchange between Egyptian and Turkish workers in the tourism field as well.
In this regard, Hala El-Khatib spoke about the role of the Egyptian Tourism Federation in developing the tourism and investment sector by increasing hotels and trained professional labour, stressing that the federation owns the first safe driving center of its kind in the Middle East for training skilled drivers, as well as a center for training chefs. She stressed that the federation is working on preparing strong training programs in cooperation with the Ministry of Education and Technical Education to create new generations that keep pace with modern professional and technological development in the sector, and on establishing mini technical schools inside hotels.
