By Akram Medhat
Minister of Tourism Yehia Rashed affirmed that the Pope's blessing of the launch of the Holy Family Trail and his call for everyone to visit Egypt came as the crowning of the efforts of the political leadership and the government on the tourism file, especially their efforts on the Holy Family journey file.
Rashed pointed to Pope Francis's sermon describing Egypt as a land of peace and urging pilgrimage to it as part of the Holy Family journey program, which will have a great impact in supporting tourism. He added that the Pope sent his greetings to the President of the Republic, the Prime Minister, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar and Pope Tawadros.
He added that there are special programs for the Holy Family journey, and that specific points will be launched first as an initial phase, noting the tourism sector's readiness to work on this file and that the Holy Family Trail will be included in the Vatican's pilgrimage program for 2018.
Italian Professional Meetings
On the sidelines of his visit to the Vatican, Minister of Tourism Yehia Rashed held a number of important meetings, most notably with Dorina Bianchi, Italy's Deputy Minister of Culture in charge of tourism, the head of the Italian Federation of Travel Agencies FIAVET, a number of Italian tour operators and officials of the Vatican pilgrimage agency Opera Romana Pellegrinaggi, as well as representatives of the trade and tourism media.
The minister reviewed the efforts made to restore tourist traffic and the current action plans, stressing the importance of restoring Italian tourist traffic, Italy being one of the main markets for the Egyptian tourist destination.
The visit received intensive media coverage from most international news agencies, and extensive coverage was achieved in Italy in the most important major newspapers and in reports on the Vatican's official television, TV2000, as well as extensive coverage in the most important trade and tourism newspapers.
