Sherif Fathy, Minister of Tourism and Antiquities, today received tourism investor Mounir Ghabbour, Chairman and Managing Director of Al Masar for Tourism Development, which, as part of its work, is taking part in developing services at some points along the Holy Family Trail in Egypt.
The meeting reviewed the concept prepared by the company for a project to develop tourism and urban services at all points along the Holy Family Trail in Egypt, with the aim of improving the quality of services offered to tourists and raising the efficiency of the infrastructure at the sites included on the trail.
The presentation included identifying the tourism services needed at each point along the trail, in addition to distributing roles and responsibilities among the various bodies involved in implementing the development plan, with work to begin at only ten points on the trail as a first phase.
The minister said the Holy Family Trail in Egypt is one of the distinctive tourism products of the Egyptian destination, noting the ministry's keenness, in light of its current strategy, to highlight and develop all the tourism types and products that distinguish the Egyptian tourist destination and to improve the quality of the services offered and linked to each individual tourism type or product.
The minister stressed the importance of concerted efforts by the relevant state bodies and civil society to draw up an integrated action plan to develop the tourism product of the Holy Family Trail in Egypt, in terms of developing the basic tourism infrastructure at each point on the trail, with a group of supporters who believe in the idea of this product, contributing further to the integrated implementation of this sustainable national project and achieving its desired goals, in addition to drawing up the necessary marketing plans once the development is complete.
He noted that the ministry will cooperate with all the relevant bodies to prepare an integrated action plan according to specific and clear timelines, starting with the points located in Cairo Governorate and including them in the plan set for developing Historic Cairo. He also pointed to the importance of designing a number of tourist routes for tourists' trips to the Holy Family points as part of the spiritual tourism product, in addition to creating other tourist routes that combine this type of tourism with the other types in which the Egyptian destination abounds.
The meeting was attended by Ambassador Mokhtar Omar, board member of Al Masar for Tourism Development; Eng. Eman Mansour of Al Masar; Eng. Ahmed Youssef, Assistant Minister for Strategies and Acting CEO of the Egyptian Tourism Promotion Authority; Dr. Gamal Mostafa, Head of the Islamic, Coptic and Jewish Antiquities Sector at the Supreme Council of Antiquities; and Eng. Adel El-Gendy, Director General of the General Department for Strategy and General Coordinator of the project to revive the Holy Family Trail in Egypt.
It is worth noting that the project to revive the Holy Family Trail in Egypt is one of the most important national projects to which the Egyptian state pays great attention. The Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities has restored the archaeological sites located along the trail, and, in cooperation with the Ministry of Local Development and the National Organization for Urban Harmony, has developed tourism services at some of these sites, including the Church of the Virgin Mary at Gabal al-Tair in Minya Governorate, the monasteries of Wadi El Natrun, the Church of the Virgin Mary and Martyr Abanoub in Gharbia Governorate, Tell Basta in Sharqia Governorate, the Church of the Virgin Mary in Kafr El Sheikh Governorate, and the Virgin Mary's Tree in Matariya.
