By Akram Medhat
Minister of Tourism Yehia Rashed, accompanied by Ambassador Ehab Badawy, Egypt's Ambassador in Paris, held a series of official meetings with a number of government officials in France, French tourism companies and tour operators on the sidelines of the 31st Top Resa fair in the French capital, Paris, which runs from September 26 to 29 this month.
He reviewed the security measures for Egyptian tourist destinations and airports, as well as the recovery of arrivals to Egypt from various markets, with the aim of easing the warnings on the French Foreign Ministry's travel advice website.
He met with Greece's Minister of Tourism, the French Foreign Minister, the head of the French tour operators' union SNAV, the head of crisis management at the French Foreign Ministry, the head of the Egyptian-French Friendship Association in the French Senate, the head of the Egyptian-French Friendship Association in the French Parliament, the vice president of the French travel agents' union EDV, and a number of industry partners among tour operators, most notably TUI, Kouni, Travel Evasion, the Karnaval group, Thomas Cook, Paravel and Biple.
During the meeting, the tour operators affirmed that summer 2017 put Egypt back on the tourism map in the French market and that demand to visit Egypt is steadily increasing, pointing to a threefold rise in sales in the summer season compared with the same period last year, and saying that booking indicators for the coming autumn and winter seasons are very promising.
It is worth noting that the Egyptian pavilion at the Top Resa fair covers 82 square meters and was designed to combine ancient Egyptian civilization with the modernity of the resorts in the Red Sea destinations.
