- ARAB NEWS
- 24 Apr 2024
Since 1975
Laila Mohamed Cairo
Egypt’s Minister of Tourism Rania El-Mashat met Chairman of the Japan Association of Travel Agents (JATA) Hiromi Tagawa during her participation in the Tourism Expo Japan 2019 held in Osaka. They discussed means of enhancing bilateral cooperation to increase the number of tourists to Egypt.
El-Mashat highlighted that Japanese tourism to Egypt grew by 38 percent from January to September compared to the same period in 2018.
She underlined the strong relations between Egypt and Japan, highlighting the friendship between the political leaders of both countries, in addition to the various aspects of bilateral cooperation in many fields and projects, including the Great Egyptian Museum (GEM), whose work is being carried out in cooperation with the Japan International Cooperation Organization. GEM is due to be inaugurated next year.
El-Mashat attributed the increasing number of Japanese tourists to Egypt to its political and security stability.
She added that international institutions praising the security situation in Egypt boosted the tourism sector. Egypt won the Global Champion Award 2019 from the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) in recognition of its efforts in enhancing the sector.
The latest WTTC report stated that efforts exerted by the Egyptian state to improve the security situation led to a 16.5 percent increase in the tourism industry, four times the global average growth of 3.9 percent.
El-Mashat pointed out that various structural reform programs to develop the sector have already been implemented.
She noted that the Egyptian tourism sector’s positive results reflected on foreign currency earnings in dollars and in the balance of payments.
She said that the Central Bank of Egypt’s data revealed that tourism revenues had reached the highest levels in the country’s history, recording $12.6 billion in the fiscal year 2018/2019 with a 28 percent increase over the previous year.
El-Mashat invited JATA to organize trips from Japan to GEM after its inauguration, underlining the museum’s unique location near the pyramids.
She underscored the possibility of enhancing cooperation between the ministry and JATA to boost Japanese tourism to Egypt.
Such cooperation would include marketing campaigns, as well as the new flight incentives program launched by the ministry in November 2018.
Mahmoud El-Banna, owner of a tourism company in Egypt, told Arab News that there was an increased Japanese demand to visit Egypt due to the safety and security in the country.
He added that Egypt was a special destination for Japanese tourism companies and that there were more than 900 flights from Japan to Egypt from April to October.
El-Banna added that his company was working on flights between Japanese cities and Cairo.
