Following the election of its new president, Mohamed Morsi, and tourism minister, Mohamed Hisham Abbas Zaazou, Egypt is attempting to claw its way back into the favor of international tourists.
Zaazou has worked in both the private and public tourism sectors for the past three decades, including having served on the board of the Egyptian Tourism Federation, the Egyptian Tourist Authority, the Tourism Development Authority and the Arab Tourism Organization. He is also a member of the United Nations World Tourism Organization.
Three initial priorities have been set to improve inbound tourism to Egypt:
• Increasing the marketing and promotion of Egypt.
• Reorganizing the tourism ministry’s departments.
• Increasing investment in Egypt’s tourism industry.
The country’s president has meanwhile pledged to guarantee the security of visitors. During a recent visit to iconic Luxor, Morsi said that the site would remain the capital of tourism and antiquities.
The statement followed two clashes in Giza and Cairo as well as most recently a militant attack on the Sinai Peninsula, killing 16 Egyptians and injuring seven. The area was immediately closed to tourist buses.
The new tourism minister denies that these attacks will undermine tourism recovery efforts. Over 5.2 million tourists visited Egypt during the first half of 2012, with expectations that this amount will rise to more than 12 million by year's end.