Minister of Tourism Hisham Zaazou mourned to the Egyptian people and the tourism sector the passing of one of the knights of Egyptian tourism, Dr. Mamdouh El-Beltagui, former Minister of Tourism, Information and Youth, who through his work and tireless activity carved his name in bold letters in the history of Egyptian tourism. El-Beltagui died this morning, Saturday, October 10, at the age of 76 after a long struggle with illness.
Dr. Mamdouh El-Beltagui handled numerous tourism crises with great professionalism and succeeded in overcoming them, returning the Egyptian tourism industry to growth and restoring tourist traffic afterward, such as the crises that resulted from the terrorist attack at the Temple of Hatshepsut in Luxor in 1997. Despite the horror of the event, political and professional wisdom in managing events helped tourist traffic return to normal after only 3 months.
It is worth noting that Dr. Mamdouh El-Beltagui was honored during the World Tourism Day celebration held on October 4 as one of the most prominent figures who influenced the tourism sector and contributed to its prosperity.
Dr. El-Beltagui took the helm of the Ministry of Tourism in 1993, when the number of tourists did not exceed 2.2 million, and left for the Ministry of Information having achieved a milestone of 5.8 million tourists, after the country went through numerous terrorist incidents, the most famous and violent being the Luxor terrorist attack, which killed nearly 60 tourists, as well as the events of September 11, 2001, which led to a frightening decline in global tourism rates. Following that, El-Beltagui chaired the world Tourism Recovery Committee in recognition of his good performance in the Luxor crisis, and he held numerous Egyptian political posts.
Among his famous sayings: "Tourism is the locomotive of human development because it is linked to 72 industries and crafts."
Mamdouh El-Beltagui took up the post of Minister of Information in 2004, and in a short time switched the television system from analog to digital, reduced the number of broadcast channels, and launched state television's first-ever talk show, "El Beit Beitak", whose name was borrowed from the tourism promotion campaign aimed at the Gulf titled "Egypt, El Beit Beitak".
In 2005, El-Beltagui took over the portfolio of the Ministry of Youth and Sports, and he developed 5 stadiums in preparation for the Africa Cup of Nations held in Egypt in 2006.
El-Beltagui received numerous decorations at home and abroad, namely the Egyptian Order of Merit, First Class, and numerous orders, ribbons and medals from France, Germany, Spain, Greece and Sudan, and he had the honor of heading and representing official Egyptian delegations at numerous international conferences and meetings.
Biography
Name: Mamdouh Ahmed El-Beltagui
Date of birth: April 21, 1939
Place of birth: Cairo, Egypt
Marital status: Married
Children: One son
Education: Bachelor's degree from the Faculty of Law, Cairo University, in 1958; postgraduate diploma in taxation and financial legislation, Cairo University; postgraduate diploma in public law, Cairo University.
During several years of postgraduate study at the Sorbonne University in the French capital, Paris, El-Beltagui obtained numerous higher degrees: a postgraduate diploma in public finance in 1969, a postgraduate diploma in political science in 1970, a specialized doctorate in economics in 1973, and a doctorate equivalence in political science in 1975.
Professional and Political Career
Worked as a public prosecutor, rising through the judicial hierarchy to become a counselor at the Cairo Court of Appeal, from 1958 to 1967.
Representative of the Egyptian Minister of Information at the Egyptian Embassy in Paris, France, from 1975 to 1982.
Head of the State Information Service, with the rank of deputy minister, from 1982 to 1993.
Minister of Tourism from 1993 to 2004
Minister of Information from July 2004 to February 2005
Minister of Youth from February 2005 to December 2005
Secretary of the National Democratic Party from 1992 to 1993
Member of the Shura Council from 1993
Chairman of the World Tourism Organization's Tourism Recovery Committee from December 2002
Member of the General Secretariat office of the National Democratic Party and secretary of the party's media committee from September 2002
