On his first tour outside Cairo since taking over the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities portfolio, Dr. Khaled El-Enany visited Hurghada today, Saturday, where he held an expanded meeting with 70 tourism investors in the presence of Maj. Gen. Amr Hanafy, Governor of the Red Sea, to discuss the state of the tourism sector in the governorate, the problems it faces and ways of cooperation between them and the ministry in the coming period.
The meeting was attended by MP Mohamed Abdel Maksoud, deputy head of the House of Representatives' Tourism and Aviation Committee; Ahmed El-Wassif, chairman of the Egyptian Tourism Federation; Hossam El-Shaer, chairman of the Chamber of Tourism Companies; Magued Fawzy, head of the Chamber of Hotel Establishments; Kamel Abou Aly, chairman of the Red Sea Investors Association; Sameh Hweidak, the association's vice chairman; and Tamer Nabil, the association's secretary general, in addition to a number of investors and representatives of the private tourism sector in the Red Sea Governorate.
During the meeting, El-Enany affirmed that the coming period will see cooperation and coordination between the governorate and the ministry to advance its tourism sector and solve the investors' problems that hinder work in the tourism sector, adding that periodic meetings will be held with private tourism sector investors.
El-Enany referred to his visit to the city last week to inspect the final works on the Hurghada Museum, scheduled to open next month, which is considered the first museum in Egypt established in cooperation with the private sector, expressing the ministry's welcome for all private sector initiatives to establish museums in coastal cities or to manage services at archaeological sites in Egypt, following the example of the Pyramids area, where last December the Supreme Council of Antiquities signed, for the first time, a contract with a specialized Egyptian company to provide and operate visitor services at the Giza Pyramids area.
El-Enany explained that he will make numerous visits to the various tourist governorates in the coming period, noting that he has agreed with the Governor of South Sinai to visit the governorate after the Christmas celebrations to meet South Sinai investors, and that he will also visit Luxor and Aswan governorates and the remaining governorates in turn to meet investors and officials of the Egyptian tourism sector.
A number of investors reviewed the problems facing the tourism investment sector in the Red Sea and put forward their proposals, as Kamel Abou Aly pointed out some obstacles and proposals for solving them, while Hossam El-Shaer, chairman of the Chamber of Tourism Companies and head of a hotel group, stressed the importance of having a single body for tourism investors to deal with in order to obtain licenses for building hotels.
The meeting also touched on the problem facing the Chamber of Diving and Water Sports with the new fees imposed by the Ministry of Environment on diving activities in natural protectorate areas, and the minister promised to hold a meeting this week with the Minister of Environment in the presence of the federation to discuss the matter.
Marsa Alam investors presented their proposals for developing the area and the problems it faces, and the Minister of Tourism and Antiquities promised to visit Marsa Alam soon.
