[EGYPT]Tourism in Egypt offers lasting memories, business opportunities

Egypt has always been known for its famous historical sites: Its pyramids, the Sphinx and Luxor temple are the most well-known icons of tourism in Egypt. However, over the last two decades Egypt has also developed various types of tourism services in the fields of culture, entertainment, golf, diving, aqua sport, desert safari, convention, eco and therapeutic tourism.

Egypt is becoming now a golfing destination that competes with the world`s best. Its courses meet international standards. It enjoys good weather. And it offers a variety of tourist attractions. Hurghada, Sharm El-Sheikh and the surrounding areas on the Red Sea contain just about everything a tourist would like to have. They have every variety of water sports, several golf courses, casinos and luxurious hotels and resorts.

As for cultural tourism, Luxor is a living museum with vast numbers of ancient Egyptian monuments that represent one-third of the whole world`s monuments. It is also highly tourist-friendly, and might be thought of in the same regard as a theme park, where the attractions just happen to be real monuments.

Aswan, not far from Luxor, is famous for its beautiful scenery and the magnificent Abou Simbel temple south of the city. Now tourists can check the official website of the Egyptian Tourist Authority (www.egypt.travel) to get detailed information about tourist destinations in Egypt, sights and activities, events and even to organize their own trip.

Encouraged by the rapid growth of the tourism sector in Egypt, the government is trying not only to attract more tourists but also to encourage international tourism giants to increase their business in Egypt and to attract more foreign investment in this field based on the following facts:

- Egypt saw rapid growth in tourism of 18.4 percent in 2004, the fastest in the Middle East, and was the destination for 19.1 percent of all Middle East international tourist arrivals.

- Tourism provides a significant contribution to Egypt`s economy. The hotels and restaurants segment of the industry accounted for 2.8 percent of Egypt`s GDP in 2004, and the total direct and indirect impact of tourism on the economy is about 11.3 percent of GDP. The sector employs around 12.6 percent of all Egyptian labor.

- Investment in the industry increased by 18.4 percent in 2004, reaching $500 million.

- Tourism is the second-largest source of foreign earnings with 23.4 percent of total receipts.

- Receipts from tourism reached $5.5 billion in 2004, an increase of 44.2 percent from a year earlier.

- International tourist arrivals increased to 8.1 million in 2004, 34.1 percent higher than in 2003.

Investing in tourism will give the investor the privilege of low infrastructure costs, income and sales tax exemption (in free zones areas), only 5 percent custom duties on imported machinery, the use of 14 efficiently managed commercial seaports and access to 232,000 university graduates annually .

There are 10 airports offered to the private sector: Marsa Alam and Borg El-Arab airports, Ras Sedr airport, Bahareya Oasis airport, Ain Sokhna and Assiut airports, Sharm El-Sheikh and Aswan expansion projects, and the new Hurghada terminal.

In this regard it is worth mentioning that about 98 percent of total hotel capacity is owned by the private sector, while the majority of four- and five-star hotels are managed by foreign firms.

Here in Korea, the Egyptian Embassy is doing its part in the government`s comprehensive plan to increase tourism to Egypt and to encourage more Korean investors into this field.

In less than one year, we received two of the most prestigious dancing groups from Egypt, who participated in several festivals in three different cities in Korea. We have also screened two Egyptian movies for the first time to Korean audiences, as well as participated in three tourism fairs in Seoul, Busan and Daegu, and started the process of translating tourist information at Egypt`s main attractions into Korean.

Also the rapid growth of Korean tourists visiting Egypt - from 27,000 in 2003 to 50,000 in 2005 - has encouraged a lot of Egyptians to start studying the Korean language in the newly opened Korean language department in Ain Shams University, which will give Korean tourists a more comfortable stay in Egypt.

Last but not least, the embassy is also working on different promotion programs with the different airlines that fly to Egypt like Korean Air, Emirates and Qatar airways, a move that should encourage Korean tourists to visit not only Cairo - which boasts major tourist sites such as the pyramids, the Sphinx and the Egyptian Museum - but different cities like Luxor and Alexandria.



This article was contributed by the Egyptian Embassy in Seoul. - Ed.