Its main aim is to boost antiquities tourism and introduce Egyptians to Japanese culture
Hotel general manager: the Japanese community and the ambassador invited alongside tourism sector officials
The Mercure Pyramids Hotel in Remaya Square, Giza, plans to hold the Japanese Day festival for the second year in a row on November 14. The festival was first held last year in August and aims to increase arrivals from the Japanese market. The hotel stands out for its location facing the Pyramids archaeological area, which attracts Japanese tourists, who rely on cultural "archaeological" tourism when visiting Egypt.
In this context, Gamal Hassan, the hotel's general manager, told Travel Yalla that the festival also aims to introduce Egyptians to Japanese culture, in terms of food and arts, and to how Japan became one of the major economic powers only about 60 years after it was struck by the atomic bomb, along with other information about the Japanese people in various fields. It will also review Japanese investments in Egypt and focus on the role of JICA in the Grand Egyptian Museum project, one of the largest archaeological projects in Egypt. He added that the festival includes a concert by the festival coordinator, "Okumura-san".
Hassan noted that members of the Japanese community in Egypt, who number about 3,000, will be invited, and an invitation has been extended to the Japanese ambassador in Cairo. Twenty-five students from the Japanese school will take part. The Egyptian side will be represented by invitations to the Minister of Tourism or the head of the Egyptian Tourism Promotion Authority, the Minister of Antiquities and the Governor of Giza, in addition to tourism companies and hotels working with the Japanese market, to stress that "we work as one entity in the interest of Egyptian tourism."
He added that the participation of Egyptians matters to the hotel and is a key part of the festival's activities, so the festival has been announced on the hotel's website and Facebook page to invite Egyptians to take part in the event and spend the Japanese day. He pointed out that the entry fee is a flat 250 Egyptian pounds per person for all nationalities, including an open buffet of Japanese food and the festival's activities.
The general manager of Mercure Pyramids stressed that the festival's activities have a strong positive impact on Japanese tourism, adding: "We were optimistic about the event because the lifting of the ban on Japanese travel to Egypt last year came less than a month after the festival was first held."
