Minister of Tourism Dr. Rania Al-Mashat met today with the President of the Japan Association of Travel Agents (JATA), Hiromi Tagawa, on the sidelines of the Japan International Tourism and Travel Expo, held in Osaka, Japan, from October 24 to 27 this month, to discuss various aspects of cooperation to drive more inbound traffic from Japan to Egypt in the coming period.
During the meeting, the JATA president stressed that Egypt is one of the important tourist destinations to which the association seeks to organize trips, noting that Japanese tourists have great interest in cultural tourism and in visiting archaeological sites in Egypt, and affirming that the Japanese love Egyptian civilization. He added that he looks forward to learning what is new in Egypt's tourism sector and to cooperating with the Ministry of Tourism in the coming period to increase the number of Japanese tourists to Egypt.
For her part, the Minister of Tourism revealed the notable increase in tourist traffic to Egypt in general, especially Japanese tourism, which rose by 38.2% from January to September 2019 compared with the same period last year. She noted that the most important Japanese cities sending tourists to Egypt are Tokyo, followed by Osaka, then Hokkaido.
The Minister of Tourism stressed the depth of relations between Egypt and Japan and the friendship between the political leaderships of the two countries, noting that there are many aspects of joint cooperation between the two countries in numerous fields and projects, including the Grand Egyptian Museum, which is being carried out in cooperation with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and is scheduled to open at the end of next year.
Al-Mashat invited the association to organize trips from Japan to visit the museum after its opening, pointing to its unique location next to the Pyramids, in addition to the presence of Sphinx Airport near it, which provides the opportunity to organize tourism programs that combine a visit to the museum with visits to other tourist destinations.
The minister pointed to the possibility of strengthening cooperation between the ministry and JATA to drive more Japanese tourism to Egypt, including through joint promotional campaigns and the new aviation incentive program launched by the ministry last November.
She drew attention to the ministry's keenness to take part in the Japan International Tourism and Travel Expo, which is being held in Osaka for the first time and is one of the most important international tourism exhibitions.
During the meeting, she also reviewed the notable positive developments in the Egyptian tourism sector, most notably the British government's lifting of the travel ban to Sharm El-Sheikh, international institutions' praise for the security situation in Egypt, and Egypt winning this year's "Global Leadership in Tourism" award from the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), adding that the Egyptian state's efforts to improve security conditions helped increase tourism by 16.5%, which is 4 times the global average growth.
The minister said that the Tourism Promotion Authority had hosted a delegation of 10 representatives of JATA and Japanese tourism companies, accompanied by a Japanese media delegation, last February on a familiarization trip to Egypt during which they visited many tourist areas, including Cairo, Alexandria, Luxor, Sharm El-Sheikh and Hurghada.
Last year, the Ministry of Tourism also hosted a group of young Japanese people from the Japanese prefectures of Hiroshima, Okayama and Ehime who had been affected by the floods that swept Japan in July 2018, as part of the Egyptian government's keenness to stand by the Japanese people and within the framework of the strong relations between the two countries.
At the end of the meeting, the minister invited the chairman of JATA to visit Egypt and presented him with a commemorative gift.
