By Akram Medhat
Marseilia for Tourism Investment has announced its participation in the Arabian Travel Market (ATM) in Dubai, which will run from April 28 to May 1, to showcase its services and future plans to expand its activities, which include tourism investment and hotel management. Marseilia Tours has obtained a stand to market and promote its tourism product and hotel services under the umbrella of the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism, especially as the exhibition is the largest and most important specialized tourism exhibition in the Arab world.
Sherif Helio, chairman of the board of Marseilia, said the plan for the current phase targets new Arab clients for many reasons, most importantly to enhance their chances of obtaining better services in Egypt, especially as Arab tourists are high spenders compared with foreigners. This supports tourism's contribution to the national economy and thus increases job opportunities for Egyptians, which represent the most important mechanism of sustainable economic development. That is why the company decided to take part in the ATM tourism exhibition in Dubai.
Helio explained that despite the economic difficulties resulting from the period after the January revolution, confidence in Egypt's investment climate has supported the implementation of the company's previously planned expansions and the setting of new, more ambitious plans. He added that among the most important factors contributing to this was the support and encouragement of the political leadership, which consolidated security and was active in implementing infrastructure projects, especially the road network, which has facilitated the implementation of tourism projects in new areas.
In a related context, Yasser Ragab, managing director of the Marseilia companies, said restructuring measures have included electronic applications that provide better opportunities to communicate with clients, respond immediately to their needs and deal in real time with their comments and complaints, as well as providing effective outlets for marketing the group's product and services.
Ehab El-Gendy, vice chairman of the board of the Marseilia Beach for Tourism Investment companies, revealed that the group's planned expansions until 2022 include building and operating a group of hotels in Siwa, increasing the volume of ongoing projects in Marsa Matrouh, and new contracts to manage and operate tourist hotels on the North Coast and in Ain Sokhna, in addition to leasing a hotel in Cairo and taking part in managing and operating an Aqua Park water park.
El-Gendy noted that the staff's success in achieving customer satisfaction has been positively reflected in the scale of expansion over eight years, during which the group started with one company and now owns four multi-activity companies. This truly reflects the state of the promising Egyptian economy, which is poised to achieve increasing growth rates supported by the Egyptian government's policies to support investment, especially in tourism. He stressed that there are good indicators of tourism flourishing in Egypt through new and diverse projects that add to the Egyptian tourism product and attract new segments of tourists.
El-Gendy added that the company has invested in medical tourism through its project in Siwa Oasis, building a 60-room hotel and the first salt cave among medical and eco-tourism projects in Egypt, on an area of 40 feddans, with the projects relying entirely on natural components from the surrounding environment. He stressed that President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi's directives to establish therapeutic resorts and pay attention to this type of tourism in recent years have supported the company's idea, especially as the road and bridge projects carried out by the state have made it easier for investors to open new projects and develop uninhabited areas, as reflected in the construction of Siwa Airport, which will further support medical tourism investments there.
El-Gendy said the group is seeing many expansions during this period through its first successful experience in managing an integrated hotel establishment in Marsa Matrouh, consisting of fully serviced hotel apartments that are currently undergoing further expansion, as well as managing four projects in Ain Sokhna, with other projects under study on the North Coast, along with many restaurants serving Bedouin and Arab cuisine prepared in kitchens dedicated to making those dishes.
It is worth noting that Marseilia celebrated eight years since the start of Marseilia Beach's activities and three years since the launch of Marseilia Eastern for hotel management.
